One benefit of having a Facebook Page is that once you build up a healthy community, you can start directing them to your website to join an email list, sign a petition, donate or take come other action.

But have you optimized your Facebook Page for this purpose?

Here are seven ways to increase the amount of website traffic you’re getting specifically from your Facebook Page:

1. Optimize your Info Tab – Your info tab should be optimized for search and viewers (overlapping goals). You optimize the info tab for search by filling in the appropriate fields with keyword-rich content. You can research the best keywords by using Google’s Keyword Tool and Google Analytics. You optimize your info tab for viewers by writing compelling copy for your info tab.

Within your intotab, make sure your put your website URL in the URL field. Also, enter specific URLs to pages related to each section. For example, in the “mission” add a link to the page on your site that talks about your mission.
2. Create a Custom Tab – If you don’t have a custom tab, you should at least create a custom welcome tab and set it as your default tab. Not only will this convert more Facebook users into fans, it will be another way to drive more traffic to your website (check out my webinar on March 8th).

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• set up a membership area on your blog
• you want to sell digital products from your blog
• you want to generate leads for your email list

This is going to be good!

What is Premise 2.0?

Premise was previously a landing page creation tool which I’ve used myself – it was great but landing pages are only part of what an entrepreneurial blogger needs. But the new Premise lets you do so much more!

With version 2.0 you can do the previous landing pages the first version did but you can now also:

Build a membership site with WordPress – secure and protected areas for members – all within WordPress.

1. Take recurring payments – your membership area can be free – or you can charge a recurring fee. Premise manages this all.
2. Drip Member Content over Time – manages you being able to drip content out to members of your membership area over time. Think a course in which you take members through a process over a week, month or even a year.
(...)

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Very cool. Now I just need to think of something to use it for…

Tinycon – Favicon Alert Bubbles [GitHub]

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As companies evolve their people, process and technology to attract, engage and inspire customers through content, I think attention on a broader view of the value that is created warrants consideration.

Many companies that approach my agency ask about the ROI of specific tactics as if they are gambling money with a direct rate of return. If there are agencies contributing to that perspective amongst clients side marketers, I wish they would stop. It’s not helping anyone. Here’s why:

The underpinning of marketing is centered around presenting something of value to customers who hopefully exchange money for it. Many marketers use the notion of ROI to characterize the effect of their marketing investment. Of course it makes sense to understand what the return is on where you’re spending money. But I think traditional models of ROI (input – output) can miss the point of how much impact integrated search, social and content marketing can have on the overall customer relationship. Besides ROI, there are other cumulative effects that can amplify the effect of optimized online marketing efforts that are worth measuring.

Today’s digitally savvy customers are empowered to publish and prone to share their experiences with brands, friends and broader social networks. Consumer expectations of brands are evolving into participatory exchanges with multiple threads of dialog. What consumers want from socially savvy brands is not just about getting free coupons or unique content any more.

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When anyone wants to quickly and easily create, test, and optimize landing pages with WordPress, our Premise software is the way to go. No doubt.

And the one-time fee, bundled optimization education, copywriting advice (from within WordPress), and included custom graphics have made Premise the go-to choice for thousands of online marketers and small businesses.

But what if you’re looking for more?

What if you want to:

1. Build a membership site?
2. Do advanced lead generation beyond email?
3. Securely sell ebooks, software, and other digital products?
4. Create “velvet-rope” forum communities at your site?
5. Have a complete digital sales and marketing system in one?

What would you use to do those things with WordPress, plus those critical landing pages, the split-testing, graphics, and advice, all in one smartly-coded and education-supplemented product? (...)

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I had a chance to play a bit with the HTC One X and HTC One S (the HTC One V was also present, but HTC wouldn’t let us turn it on), and I came away impressed.

Both devices are based on Android 4 or Ice Cream Sandwich and the latest version of HTC’s overlay UI, Sense 4. HTC One X is the more powerful one, though, with quad-core Tegra 3 on board, and it shows: the device is, simply put, the fastest Android handset we’ve ever held in our hands.

Everything – and I mean everything, including the 0.7-second photo snapping HTC is so proud about – feels really smooth and snappy. The Sense UI feels really subtle in its latest iteration, and it doesn’t slow down the experience one bit.

This doesn’t mean that the HTC One S is slow; in fact, if One X didn’t exist, HTC could call this device its flagship phone and I wouldn’t complain. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with it, but it felt just as fast as its elder brother.

Physically, both devices are incredibly light, and this goes especially for the HTC One X. With its 4.7-inch form factor, you’d expect a heavier device, and its lightness makes it feel less clunky in your hand – though I’m still not sure whether a 4.7-inch screen is too big for a smartphone.

Which leads us to the physical traits of the HTC One S – it has a 4.3-inch screen and a black aluminum case, which many will prefer to the polycarbonate unibody case of the One X. (...)

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Skype for Windows Phone Beta Video Chat

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BARCELONA: Nokia wove a convincing story this morning of success for the still-young and well-behind-the-competition Windows Phone platform, but it was one brief product mention that could be the best augur of future success: The arrival of Skype for Windows Phone–in beta form, at least.

Microsoft acquired Skype last year and though the marriage is not 100% uncontested, the two companies are now working as one to deliver a unique Skype experience to the Windows Phone platform. Skype for Windows Phone Beta, which you can download today, looks unlike any version of Skype you’ve ever see before.

The interface still has its signature sky blue accents, but the button styles and feature organization is all Metro. Metro is the new cubist design style that’s seeping into all of Microsoft’s platforms, including Windows 8, Windows Phone and Xbox Live. Take the contacts list, for example, which is now a letter grid. The app appears to be fully integrated with all of Windows Phone’s metaphors, including slide away panes to switch between, say, a profile, and chat.

As with other versions of Skype, Skype for Windows Phone beta lets users make free audio and video calls over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi. By contrast, Apple’s Facetime video chat only works over Wi-Fi and between iPhones. The beta works with most Windows Phones running Windows Phone 7.5 (A.K.A. “Mango”), including Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 models, Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash and HTC’s Titan and Radar. (...)

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With only 256 MB of RAM, it’s definitely the least powerful Lumia we’ve seen so far. However, Nokia claims that the good work Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 7.5 has enabled them to expand the platform onto less powerful devices. In other words, the Lumia 610 shouldn’t feel too sluggy in day to day operation, though Nokia is still hiding the rest of the device’s specifications.

Like all Lumias, the 610 comes with a neat bundle of extras. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn integration are all present, as is Xbox Live for those who are into mobile gaming.

The device also comes with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and Nokia Music.

Nokia Lumia 610 comes in blue, silver, magenta and black, and retails for 189 euros.

SONY DSC

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More About: Lumia 610, Mobile World Congress, Nokia, Nokia Lumia 610, smartphone, windows phone

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You read that right, 41 megapixels – Nokia has made this happen by combining Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed pixel over-sampling technology. High megapixel count does not equal quality photos, of course – we’re looking forward to seeing how PureView tech works in real life.

Of course, the PureView technology will be coming to upcoming Nokia phones as well, so get used to phones having crazy megapixel numbers in the near future.

The 808 PureView also features something called Rich Recording, which lets you record “crisp, clear audio (…) up to a thumping 140 decibels,” says Nokia.

The rest of the specs mostly spell mid-range: a single core 1.3 GHz CPU, a 4-inch, 360 x 640 pixel screen, 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of storage.

The device will retail for 450 euros, hitting the market in May.

And, going back to the question we asked at the beginning – whether Symbian is dead, as many have predicted – Nokia declined to say. In any way, even if 808 PureView is the last Symbian we see, at least the PureView technology will live on in other handsets.

SONY DSC

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The Ashas are Series 40 devices, meaning low-end smartphones and smartphone/featurephone mixes for the emerging markets, with the Asha 202 and 203 falling into the latter category. They are essentially the same phone, with the only difference being easy SIM-swap support in the Asha 203.

They have a numeric keypad and a 2.4-inch touch screen, and come with Nokia Life, a slew of apps and features focused on education, healthcare, agriculture and finance.

These two devices will come with a gift package of 40 popular Electronic Arts games. They will start at 60 euros and should hit the market in about 6 weeks.

Asha 302 is aimed for “hyper-social” customers, Nokia claims. Push e-mail, Twitter and Facebook are preloaded on the device. It has a 1 GHz CPU, which makes it “faster than many low-end Androids,” as Nokia was happy to note. It is powered by a 1-GHz processor and supports 3.5G data speeds.

The device also supports Microsoft’s Mail for Exchange, which makes it much more appealing to business users. It is available right now for about 95 euros.

Finally, the good old Lumia 900 which is already available in the US will be hitting Canada with Rogers In April. (...)

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10-1 Android 4 Interface

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BARCELONA: Samsung’s newest 10.1-inch tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1, is thin, light and powerful, but it’s also among a rather rarefied — but growing — group of stylus tablets. Like its little sibling, the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, the new tablet features a Wacom digitizing tablet interface and stylus. Unlike the smaller notepad, the 10.1 stylus does not slip inside the slate. It’s also kind of fun to use.

We got to spend a little time with the 1.29 lb. tablet and found it comfortable to hold (it’s 8.9mm thick) and responsive. Using the stylus is not exactly like using one with an Apple iPad. The big difference here is that the Notepad 10.1’s screen is pressure-sensitive, so your line weight can vary — if you’re drawing. It’s also notable that Samsung has already updated its pen technology to recognize even more degrees of pressure than you could on the original Notepad. (...)

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The Boss hasn’t released a new album since Working on a Dream in 2009. But on March 6, he’ll release Wrecking Ball, his 17th studio album. To celebrate, he’s holding an extended listening party of sorts by unveiling each track from the album on a different website up until March 2.

In January, the album was announced by posting the first song, “We Take Care of Our Own,” on YouTube. Since then, it has been viewed over 1 million times, with overwhelmingly positive sentiment. Springsteen tells Rolling Stone that Wrecking Ball is “as direct a record as I ever made.”

The song “Wrecking Ball” originally debuted live when Springsteen and his band, the E Street Band, performed at Giants Stadium in his home state of New Jersey, shortly before the arena was demolished. On the surface, the song would appear to be about tearing down the building, but viewed through the prism of the American financial collapse it plays like a call for starting over and renewal. Andy Greene of Rolling Stone calls the album “a scathing indictment of Wall Street greed and corruption and a look into the devastation it has wrought.”

Springsteen will embark on an international tour behind Wrecking Ball this spring, but first will appear as the keynote speaker at South by Southwest on March 15. Tonight, he will appear on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” as part of a week-long tribute to his music. Throughout the week other artists will perform songs from his catalog, and then Springsteen will return on Friday as musical guest once again.

Fans can pre-order the album here. Have a listen to “Wrecking Ball” below and let us know in the comments what you think – are you getting pumped for Bruce Springsteen’s new album?

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Primetime Highlights is part of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DSP), a set of turnkey hosted services that allow publishers to create rich digital publications across a variety of platforms (you can get a deeper dive on DSP here). They produce once and deliver to tablets, phones and PCs. Project Primetime adds video as another tool in the digital publisher’s arsenal.

According to Adobe’s Danny Winokur, Vice President & General Manager, Interactive Development, the idea is that you take an important moment from a big game, like a field goal, home-run or touch down, clip it and instantly distribute it to all sources, including web sites, mobile devices and on air. Those clips will all run “with advertising to capture full value of the scene,” said Winokur.

Primetime Highlights leverages video tools, as well as its investments in analytics (Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture analytics) and targeted ad services (Demdex). The enterprise tool will initially roll out this year with support for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Smart TVs.

Adobe’s success in the digital publishing space is clearly driving this new push into video. In addition to the 16 million downloaded digital publications mentioned above, Adobe trotted out some impressive engagement figures:

More than half of digital publication readers spend as much as 2.5 hours a month consuming DSP-produced publications. 68% pay for digital magazines and newspapers built in DSP Almost half of all interactive elements included in these publications are clicked on at least once. Every fifth page of these publications is an Ad (a figure that’s more or less consistent with physical publications).

More About: adobe, digital publishing

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Image courtesy of IHave4Catz.com

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The Internet was quick to put together the best memes and GIFs from the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night, from Robert Downey Jr. channeling his inner Tim Tebow to Sacha Baron Cohen dumping ashes on Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet.

The Oscars were filled with various memorable moments this year. Robert Downey Jr. showed the world his own Tebow impression before presenting an award with his Iron Man co-star Gwyneth Palthrow. Meanwhile, Sacha Baron Cohen dumped faux ashes of late dictator Kim Jong II on Ryan Seacrest during an a red carpet interview.

Baron Cohen — who was dressed in character as General Aladeen to plug his upcoming film The Dictator, a parody about a Middle Eastern dictator — said it was a longtime wish of Jong Il’s to be sprinkled over the red carpet and “over Halle Berry’s chest.” When Seacrest turned his head, Baron Cohen “accidentally” dumped the ashes on his tuxedo.

Emma Stone shimmied while presenting with Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill reacted and the Bridesmaids girls drink on stage — every time someone says “Scorsese”.

For more moments from the Oscars, check out the gallery above.

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Although this new(ish) form of technology is widely recognized as a way to produce mass amounts of prototypes and other forms of commerce, it’s potential reaches further than that. Scientists are researching exact replicas of fossils to study dinosaurs and museums can now make copies of sculptures — in other words, fragile, important pieces of history that used to be untouchable can now be handled freely.

This also makes printing on-demand a more viable option for even small businesses, which could make manufacturing more economical and efficient. However, 3D printers are not being used just to make dozens of clones of the same product. You can create personalized novelties and decor.

Here are nine ways 3D printing is making lives easier.

1. Medical Procedures

Recently, an 83 year-old woman underwent the first-ever custom transplant of a lower jaw made by a 3D printer.

The patient — who can now chew and speak with ease — suffered from a chronic bone infection. Doctors were worried that at her age, reconstructive surgery could have caused complications.

Click here to view this gallery. (...)

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Your own blog might be packed with great content … but it won’t be doing you much good if you don’t have any readers.

One of the best ways to bring readers to your blog is to write guest posts on larger, related, blogs. This not only gets your name and writing in front of people, it also helps your Google rankings (because you’ll get a link to your site from a high-pagerank blog).

If you’ve never guest-posted before, you might not know where to start. Here’s your step-by-step guide:

Step #1: Choose Your Target Blog

Some bloggers come up with an idea and write their post, then look for a blog that’s a good fit. But it’s more efficient to select your target blog first – because this will influence everything from your initial idea to your writing style.

A good target blog is large, on-topic, and clearly accepts guest posts (e.g. you’ve seen other people’s guest posts on that blog).

Step #2: Write Your Guest Post/h2>

As you write your guest post, keep in mind any guidelines from your target blog. (Most larger blogs will have guest post guidelines – try using the search box to find these if they’re not immediately obvious.)

Make your guest post focused and useful. Give it a clear structure (introduction, main body, conclusion) and try to write it in a similar style to that used by your target blog. (...)

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1. Helvetica vs. Arial

Can you tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial? This game puts you to the test.

Click here to view this gallery.

We have a treat for font fans with itchy thumbs in this super selection of five fabulous iPhone games that share a typographical theme.

Can you easily identify typefaces? Can you tell Helvetica and Arial apart? Can you spot the serif in a sea of characters? These games will test you on these skills — and more. Best of all, the apps we’re highlighting are all tried, tested and free, so you can give them a go without spending a single cent.

Take a look through the gallery for our selections. Shout out in the comments below with any other typographical games you enjoy on your iPhone.

More About: apple, dev and design, features, fonts, Gaming, iphone, iphone apps, iPhone games, typography

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Sacha Baron Cohen dumping faux ashes of late dictator Kim Jong II on Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet of the 84th Academy Awards went viral Sunday night, as the video and animated GIF showed up on Twitter and various Tumblr sites.

Baron Cohen — who was dressed in character as General Aladeen to plug his upcoming film The Dictator, a parody about a Middle Eastern dictator — arrived at the Oscars in a white stretch limo and an urn he said contained the ashes of the former Korean dictator Kim Jong II, who passed away in December.

During a red carpet interview with Seacrest, Baron Cohen said it was a longtime wish of Jong Il’s to be sprinkled over the red carpet and “over Halle Berry’s chest.” When Seacrest turned his head, Baron Cohen “accidentally” dumped the ashes on his tuxedo.

“I had a feeling something was coming,” said Seacrest, as he brushed the ashes off. Seacrest took sullying of his tux in good spirits.

It was rumored that Baron Cohen would attend the awards in character. Baron Cohen was dressed in a military uniform designed by John Galliano and was accompanied by two flower girls who served as sidekicks.

This isn’t the first time that Baron Cohen has wreaked havoc at an awards show. In 2009, he lampooned Eminem in character as “Bruno.”

The Dictator will debut in theaters in May.

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Starting at 7:30 p.m. ET, our team will talk all things Oscars, including digital, social media, predictions, winners and so much more. We’re looking forward to having you chime in, too!

And don’t forget to check out Mashable‘s new mRank leaderboard, which tells you what’s trending in real time on Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere.

More Oscars Coverage:

• Sacha Baron Cohen Red Carpet Shenanigans Go Viral
• How Social TV is Taking Over the Oscars
• Who Will Win? Oscar Predictions, According to Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

More About: abc, celebrities, Entertainment, Movies, Oscars, trending

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• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
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Rihanna is the queen of Twitter. David Byrne's psychedelic radio show is a global hit. And Tim Burgess has his own virtual caff

As recently as the mid-1990s, when record companies still sent postcards to fans alerting them to new releases, a few really keen, hands-on artists took the initiative and sent photocopied newsletters out to addresses gathered at their shows. And that was about as sophisticated as any direct contact between an act and its fans got.

These days a band can get in touch with fans around the world, instantly and for free, via social networks or email. They can self-release a song within hours of recording it, or beam a live show to computers anywhere. If they're new (and good) they can build a career without publicists, labels or big budgets. Once successful, they can nurture their fan communities, as well as make a decent living from them – with little more than a laptop, some imagination and a bit of effort.

So what's surprising is how few musicians really make the most of the web. Many still leave it to their label, or hope a burst of digital activity around an album release will suffice. Here, though, we celebrate those artists who see their online efforts as crucial, challenging and fun. The ones who really get it – and who reap the rewards as a result.

The digital renaissance man
Daryl Hall

In 2007, Daryl Hall (the leonine half of 1980s pop titans Hall and Oates) had the idea of inviting musician friends into his enormohome to film a jam session and posting it to his website, livefromdarylshouse.com. And, as is not the case with every good, web-based idea, Hall stuck with it. His entertaining free show celebrated its 50th monthly episode last month, with blues singer Keb Mo joining an impressive list of veteran and modern-day musicians (Todd Rundgren, Toots and the Maytals) who have performed. (...)

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Then MTV came calling.

In 2008 MTV was looking to ramp up its web operations. The first project: an online “after show” for its reality-show hit, The Hills, shot at a remote location. The problem, as with many web projects that are secondary to a main broadcast, was cash. MTV didn’t want to invest a lot of money in something that hadn’t been proven to work yet.

So MTV called up NewTek and set up a TriCaster to handle the broadcast. The Hills after show ended up being a huge hit, so the network turned again to TriCaster for its next move in original online video: live-streaming concerts from an intimate club, New York City’s Webster Hall.

“We started producing a Hills aftershow live stream with the TriCaster four years ago,” says Jeff Jacobs, MTV’s senior vice president of operations. “Now we have a half-dozen series that have live streams associated with them. For us, [TriCaster] allows us to produce shows and content that we would not otherwise be able to produce.”

Although streaming a concert over the web is easy at a major venue like a stadium, all MTV had to work with at Webster Hall was a closet. Fortunately, that’s more than enough space for a TriCaster, and it enables the channel to live-stream bands on a regular basis — bands like The Kills and Mariana and the Diamonds, who normally wouldn’t get any attention from a brand like MTV. Jacobs says it would be a natural move to expand the live music project beyond New York City, though there are no firm plans yet. (...)

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Heads-up displays allow users to receive data on a screen in front of them, so they don’t have to look somewhere else, thus disrupting what they’re concentrating on. Each HUD has three parts: the combiner, which is the surface the data is projected on — like a windshield or lens; the projector unit, which puts out the image; and a video generation computer, which creates the images.

The combiner is coated with a transparent film that allows all other light to pass through, but reflects or refracts the light generated by the projector unit, making it appear to float on the screen. As you can see in the above image of a HUD on an aircraft, the information appears over the sky so the pilot doesn’t have to turn his head. The projector units are powered by cathode ray tubes, similar to older televisions, an LED, or a LCD.

Video games are a common way to encounter HUD; interfaces players use to keep track of their health, ammunition or objective are all displayed in some variety of HUD, a technique that evolved especially as first-person perspective games, like shooters and RPGs, became mainstream. They’ve also appeared in sci-fi movies as part of everyday technology.

But before they were even futuristic concepts, basic HUD’s were first put into practice by the military as early as World War II. Read our slideshow to learn the history of heads-up displays, from then, to now, and even into the future.

World War II Origins

The HUD we know today evolved from the reflector sight on German planes in 1937. They allowed targeting assistance to be added to a scope for pilots to more easily aim. Eventually it incorporated displaying information such as air speed velocity and attack angle that made it easier for pilots to hit targets.

Click here to view this gallery. (...)

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The big question is: “Can I watch the Oscars online?” Unfortunately, unlike this year’s Super Bowl — which was available to stream free online — the Oscars will not offer a complete online stream.

However, ABC is offering an official Oscars Back Stage iOS app for iPhone and iPad. This app will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the ceremony, including access to the control room, views from multiple cameras and interviews with the winners. Last year, the Oscars offered an all-access online experience for $4.99. This year, the experience-enhancing app will be available free. (...)

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The HTC S features the same unibody design as the HTC One X in a curved metal case coupled with Gorilla glass. The case is created with a technique called microarc oxidation — it makes the metal casing hard, durable and, let’s face it, sexier than ever. The device comes in silver and black finishes.

It has a 4.3-inch, 960×540 pixel screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage.

The HTC V also has a metal unibody and sports a simple design, that claims HTC, will resonate with the masses. The device’s design is really similar to HTC Legend, with a tiny “chin” at the bottom of the device. It’s the cheapest device in the bunch, with a 3.6-inch screen, a 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a 5-megapixel camera.

The hands-on experience with these two devices – which represent the mid and low-tier of the new One lineup – is slightly odd – their cases are made of metal, while the flagship device is in an even lighter polycarbonate shell. With this trick, HTC has done a good job making sure these two devices don’t feel cheap. This especially goes for the HTC One S, which is incredibly thin – only 7.95 mm.

We’ll see these two devices in store sometime in Q2 2012, HTC says. (...)

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Every year particular films generate hype; however, that hype has often be difficult to quantify. The infographic below is a precise way to quantify Oscar buzz among Twitter users.

Will Twitter hype give us accurate Oscar predictions? Do you think Twitter buzz will translate into victory for The Artist, Meryl Streep, George Clooney and Martin Scorsese?

Infographic courtesy Webtrends Design Lab

More About: oscar predictions, Oscars, oscars 2012, trending, Twitter

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• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
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Newsweek's Dan Lyons accuses bloggers of reinventing PR, dressing it up as journalism and playing at venture capitalism

The debate asking 'Are bloggers journalists?' was exhausted by about 2005. (Answer: yes.) But in Silicon Valley, the question is being asked differently: are there times when bloggers shouldn't be journalists?

The issue was raised in a titanic rant by Dan Lyons, technology editor for Newsweek and now for Tina Brown's Daily Beast website. He accused the latest breed of bloggers-turned-journalists – who have, in turn, morphed into venture capitalists – of basically reinventing PR, and dressing it up as journalism.

'Hit men, click whores and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Valley cesspool' he wrote on his personal blog this month. It was illustrated with pictures of Michael Arrington, the founder of the TechCrunch blog, and MG Siegler, a longtime friend of Arrington's, who still writes for TechCrunch, both offering an Adele-style finger to the camera; the post suggested that the duo are doing much the same to the idea that journalism should be independent, reliable and open. Lyons wrote of journalists envious of just writing about people getting rich when they felt that they should be getting rich themselves, and finding a simple solution: use your prominence and influence to rustle up a bit of funding from Valley venture capitalists (VCs) and create your own VC fund.

Then, he suggested, you might go around to various companies and offer inconsequential bits of funding – $100,000 here and there – while pointing out how helpful your 'influence' in the press could be. The companies take your investment, you write influential things about them and, if the companies thrive, so does your money. And if they don't take the money? Woe betide.

So why picture Arrington and Siegler? Because Arrington is the founder of CrunchFund, a small venture capital fund set up late last year. (...)

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The majority of mobile giants had their announcements before the actual start of the MWC – including Samsung, LG and Sony. HTC had the last, and perhaps the most glamorous event of the day, held in a huge rounded dome at the top of the Cúpula las Arenas next to Fira de Barcelona, where the main conference is held.

The HTC One X (the first in a new line of devices called simply HTC One), unveiled by the company CEO Peter Chou, is a 4.7-inch, quad core Tegra 3-powered beast in a polycarbonate white shell.

The device also brings a vastly improved camera experience, called Image Sense. The camera takes photos quickly — in 0.7 seconds. It has 8 megapixels and uses an f/2.0 lens, which captures more light than any other HTC smartphone camera. It also takes great photos in unfavorable light conditions, thanks to the device’s HDR algorithm.

An on-screen comparison with the photos taken with an HTC One X and an iPhone 4S portrays HTC’s device as a clear winner, but we’re sure Apple will have a word or two to say about that.

HTC is bundling a bunch of extras with the device: 25 GB of free Dropbox-powered storage, Beats Audio sound (HTC acquired Beats Audio in August 2011) and a feature called Media Link, which takes your photos and videos from the smartphone to the TV (through a special gadget that connects to any TV) with a three-finger swipe on the smartphone’s screen.

The company also launched two other HTC One devices with slightly lower specs – the HTC One S and the HTC One V. (...)

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Having realized the negative impacts of stress on her productivity, Amy Porterfield has adopted a range of tools—from physical calendars to Google Docs—that help smooth her daily workload, and make sure she gets everything done.

Importantly, she actually uses these tools: she told us that she discards any that don’t really work well for her. In this way, her task and time management tactics are constantly evolving to suit her personal preferences and her changing workload and goals.

Gretchen Rubin has found that having a clear desk, and an uncluttered workspace, helps her to feel calm and in control. “Outer order contributes to inner calm,” she said. “And I used to think, ‘well, it doesn’t really matter if my desk is messy, because I can find everything.’ But now I’ve really keyed into the fact that I feel calmer, my mind feels more orderly, when my stuff is more orderly.”

Bloggers who work at home with families obviously face a particular set of planning challenges. Both Heather and Darren explained the value of sitting down at the start of the week—perhaps even on a Sunday—and looking at the work-life schedule to see what’s on that week.

Darren also takes the opportunity to speak with his wife about the family’s plans, so that he can schedule in the things he needs to do as a dad, as well as a blogger.

Heather says Google Calendars have been a “life-changer” for her. “We’ve hooked up all of our calendars onto Gmail,” she says. (...)

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The official introduction of the iPad 3 is bearing down upon us, with most rumors placing the Apple press event on March 7 (and a little rumor we heard placing it on March 6). It’ll probably have a higher-resolution 2048×1536 “retina” display, a 1GHz quad-core Apple A6 processor, 4G connectivity, and it might have a few other surprises, too.

Until we can lay eyes on the real thing, let’s take a look at this infographic, which deals with who’s going to upgrade, and what people expect to do with the iPad 3.

To get this data, researchers at AYTM conducted two surveys, with questions we assisted in developing. One was of 2,000 Americans who don’t own an iPad, and the other questionnaire queried 500 iPad owners. Both were conducted this month. Here’s AYTM’s full interactive stats report for the iPad owners part of the study.

iPad 3 infographic courtesy AYTM Research

More About: apple, infographic, ipad 3, trending

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In today’s world, any smart marketing campaign will include a mix of the various popular social media platforms. But it is important to remember that with any social media platform, in order to maximize the return, you need to be an active, regular participant in the community.

You won’t gain any value by signing up for a social media service and only posting your marketing content. Those that get the most value out of social media are those that engage and communicate with other social media users.

Additionally, you want to position yourself where your current and potential customers are. Just because a social media site exists doesn’t mean that it’s right for your business or that your customers will be there. There are a lot of options in the social media realm for promoting your business online these days, so research into your audience demographic is important. One of the best and most visited social media websites you may wish to consider is StumbleUpon.

What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social media bookmarking site that allows users to “like” websites and add them to their profile. These websites are then shared with their friends through their profile and by using the “stumble” button, which is added to a user’s browser toolbar when they sign up. The stumble button basically sends a user to a random website, usually one previously liked by a friend. StumbleUpon boasts more than 30 million users. Each user fills out a survey of their interests, so there is definitely the potential for your business website to reach a broad and targeted audience.

What are the Benefits of StumbleUpon? (...)

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As expected, Sony unveiled its Xperia P and Xperia U dual-core smartphones at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Sunday. It was the first press conference for Sony since it spun off Ericsson, with Sony’s smartphones now originating from a division called Sony Mobile Communications.

The first new addition to Sony’s NXT series of Android smartphones, which already included the previously announced Xperia S, is the Xperia P (pictured above), with aluminum unibody construction. It has a 4-inch touchscreen that Sony touts as its “reality display,” and Sony says the screen’s WhiteMagic technology gives it wider viewing angles in bright light.

It’s also equipped with NFC and an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting stills and 1080p video. Available in three finishes, the Xperia P will ship in the second quarter of this year.

Along with that phone, Sony showed its Xperia smart dock, into which you can plug the Xperia P, which then connects to an HDTV using HDMI.

Next up was the similarly designed Xperia U smartphone, a dual-core 1GHz device with a 3.5″ Reality Display and a 5-megapixel camera. The Xperia U will also be available in the second quarter.

Sony didn’t mention if the phones were going to be running the new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system. (...)

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1. A Fleet at the Ready

Take a minute and think about the gargantuan task of photographing every inch of road in the world. Is your mind blown? Now you may understand why Google needs so many cars.

Click here to view this gallery.

Google is ubiquitous in our digital lives. Its algorithms deliver search results, email and YouTube videos to us in the blink of an eye. But there’s one task Google executes that is remarkably analog. To collect imagery for Street View in its Maps feature, humans (remember those?) drive automobiles, affixed with a multi-lensed camera on the roof, all over the world.

So what are the odds you’re doing something zany right when the Google car happens to pass you by? Would you even know it if you saw it? Sometimes the car is clearly labeled, other times it’s not. Regardless, now you won’t be alarmed when you see a car with a large contraption on its roof, roaming your block. Feel free to photobomb the Internets by doing something silly while the Googlemobile is driving past.

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Several different companies are showing off their water-repelling technology at the ShowStoppers event, and though we’ve seen similar tech in the past, it’s always cool to see an iPhone submerged under water or drops of liquid literally running away from a specially treated paper tissue.

A company called P2i has demonstrated its Aridion technology, which protects — according to P2i — over nine million electronic devices, including smartphones, tablets and hearing aids. Aridion uses special pulsed ionized gas (plasma), created within a vacuum chamber, attaching a nanometer-thin polymer layer over the surface of the product.

It looks impressive — a simple paper tissue treated in this way simply refuses to soak in water, with water literally rolling off the material:

P2i wouldn’t say who its clients are — company reps were permitted, they say, to name only one — Motorola. We might not even know it, but many of the gadgets we already use are protected by this or similar technology, which prevents them from corroding as fast as they would otherwise.

Sure enough, P2i is not the only one who’s doing it — another company called HzO showed us the exact same trick with the paper tissue, and we’ve also caught several iPhones, iPod nanos and other gadgets happily working in a bowl of water.

Check out a gallery of water-repellant tech and fearless gadgets working underwater below.

Waterproofing

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Gadgets, Mobile World Congress, water-repellant

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Beginning this summer, Pinterest became the top social referrer for marthastewartweddings.com and marthastewart.com, sending more traffic to both properties than Facebook and Twitter combined. Pinterest is on track to become the second highest traffic driver (after Google) to Cooking Light‘s website, up 6,000% from just six months ago. The social bookmarking site already drives 10 times the amount of traffic to Cooking Light compared to Facebook.

Elsewhere, Pinterest is the fourth largest source of traffic for Country Living, up 150% from August to the end of January, and accounts for 3% of all referrals. It was the ninth largest traffic source for both Elle Decor and House Beautiful last month, both of which have seen triple-digit percentage increases in referrals over the last six months, and was among the top 10 referral sites for Self magazine.

In most cases, the traffic began organically. Style, home decor, weddings and food are among the most popular pinning categories among the site’s more than 10 million registered users, the majority of whom are women. Pinterest users turned to the websites of lifestyle magazines early on for material, and many publishers moved quickly to harness Pinterest’s potential as a traffic driver by creating their own branded accounts.

Multiple editors contribute to Country Living’s Pinterest page.

Instead of assigning the account to a community or social media manager, Country Living has divvied up its boards among editors. The crafts editor, for instance, posts to the crafts board; the photo editor posts to a board of inspiring images; and three market editors manage the shopping, style, and Etsy boards. An editors’ faves board contains repins from staffers’ personal boards. (...)

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Editor’s note: This story was intended to be confidential until 9 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night, but 9 to 5 Mac broke that embargo, so that’s why we’re publishing this story early.

For $9.99, iPad 2 owners (sorry, there’s currently no iPad 1 support) get the ability to work in layers, use “sophisticated” selection tools and “scribble” over images to remove unwanted portions. Users will also be able to touch up photos, paint over them and create new layouts. The new app is part of Adobe’s upcoming suite of iPad “Touch” Apps. “Inspired by Adobe’s Creative Suite,” the apps include:

Adobe Collage; Adobe Debut presentation software; Adobe Ideas, which will be similar to the Illustrator vector-based desktop drawing software; Adobe Kuler color theme manager; and website- prototyping and wireframe tool Adobe Proto. Adobe said these remaining apps will launch for iOS later this year and will all work with Adobe’s Creative Cloud services.

Other features in Adobe Touch for iPad include the ability to share to Facebook directly from the app, search, using Google, from within the app, apply sophisticated image effects, and even use your tablet’s built-in camera to fill in portions of your image project.

“Photoshop Touch combines the magic of Photoshop and its core features with the convenience of a tablet, bringing image-editing power to the fingertips of millions of people,” said David Wadhwani, Adobe’s Digital Media Business Unit senior vice president and general manager.

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You don’t have to be in the market for a Super Bowl ad to learn the world’s biggest marketers. In fact, as a quick trip to Facebook illustrates, social media has a leveling effect: Whether you’re Coca-Cola or Jones Soda, your Facebook Page looks pretty much the same. Coke’s billions won’t buy a dedicated wing on Twitter, either.

With this in mind, the following social media campaigns from marketers big and small are designed to be idea generators. This isn’t a ranking of the most effective social media campaigns of the year, but rather the ones that have the most to offer an entrepreneur with big ideas and a not-so-big marketing budget.

1. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese’s Jinx

Last March, the venerable Kraft brand launched an interesting campaign on Twitter: Whenever two people individually used the phrase “mac & cheese” in a tweet, Kraft sent both a link pointing out the “Mac & Jinx” (as in the childhood game Jinx.) The first one to reply back got five free boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese plus a t-shirt.

What you can learn from this: This is a low-cost way to track down potential fans on Twitter. All you have to do is search a given term and identify two people who tweet the same phrase at (roughly) the same time. In return, you’ll gain goodwill, a likely follower and probably some good word-of-mouth buzz on the social network.

2. Ingo’s Face Logo

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BARCELONA: A projector jammed inside a smartphone may seem awkward or crazy to some — and it’s not a new idea — but the Samsung Galaxy Beam may be the most elegant execution of the mash-up yet.

The concept is simple: take a full-powered 4-inch Galaxy smartphone and add a 15-Lumens LED-powered, nHD projector. The result is a yellow and black phone that at first glance looks like a slightly fatter version (it’s 12.5mm thick and weighs 145.3 grams) of any of today’s top 3G phones.

Samsung didn’t skimp much to squeeze in the projector or, potentially, keep the price down. The Beam has a 5 MP camera (a tad less than the 8 MP we’re now used to), 8 GB of storage (upgradeable via micro-SD card to 32 GB) and 768 MB of RAM. It’s also running Android 2.3. The 480×800 screen looked clear and bright, but those specs and the screen are not the real story here. It’s reasonable to assume that the only reason someone would buy the Galaxy Beam is if you desperately wanted a dual phone/projector.

In operation, the Galaxy beam appeared flawless. It’ll play virtually anything you run on the small screen, and had no trouble shining a roughly 3-ft image onto an 8- or 9-ft ceiling. Images in a fully darkened room were very sharp and bright, but since it relies on the smartphone speakers for sound, you’ll want to hook up external speakers. Samsung execs told us that they’re working on a variety of docks and accessories.

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Would you like to know how I grew Quick Sprout to have an Alexa ranking of 10,000 in under four years?

That’s not an easy feat. But the cool thing is I didn’t do anything that you can’t do now. My tactics will work for you, too.

Fortunately, late last year I did an interview with Michael Alexis over at WriterReviews about how I grew Quick Sprout. It’s a great interview to listen to. In the meantime I’ve summarized the content in this post.

Endure and sacrifice to get great content out

At this moment my ranking on Alexa stands at 10,060:

Let me tell you, I’ve had to sacrifice a lot to get there.

Because I’m so busy with KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg I have to use my holidays and weekends to write posts. When people think of Christmas Day or New Year’s Day and time spent with family, I look forward to a peaceful day of writing posts.

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The device’s dual-core 1 GHz CPU, 4-inch, 800×480 screen, 5-megapixel rear camera (with an additional VGA one on the front) and Android 2.3 don’t do much to differentiate it from the other mid-to-high-range Androids.

What makes it different from most other smartphones on the market is its “ultra-bright,” 15-lumen projector, which lets you project a 50-inch wide image on a wall – really handy for presentations or those moments when you want to share your holiday photos with your family and friends.

Interestingly enough, Samsung says the device has 6 GB of RAM memory, but we’re seriously doubting that, and will update the article when we learn more.

Update: apparently, what Samsung really meant was 768 MB of RAM memory, while the “6″ figure was referring to the memory speed – in gigabits. So, if you were hoping to have a smartphone that has more memory than most PCs, we have to disappoint you: the Galaxy Beam is not it.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

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More About: barcelona, Beam, Mobile World Congress, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Beam, smartphone, trending

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While the smaller tablet was announced a week ago, its big brother, the 10.1 is entirely new. It sports an 1280×800 resolution screen (the 7-inch model has a 1024×600 pixel screen), and the rest of the specs between the two tablets are nearly identical: a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a VGA one on the front.

The tablets are available as 3G models (meaning HSPA) or as WiFi-only, and they’re both equipped with the latest flavor of Android – 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich.

The devices should hit the global market in March, starting with the UK, at a yet-unspecified price.

Samsung is also announcing a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. It’s a big tablet with a stylus.

More About: Galaxy Tab 2, Mobile World Congress, samsung, Tablet

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And that may be the only difference between it and the 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. We’re waiting to get more details, since we can’t tell much from the image (is it an Android 4.0 device? Does that 3G in the lower left-hand corner mean no 4G?) and, perhaps, some hands on time. Until then, you can feast your eyes on the image above.

Samsung has also announced a new Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 inch tablet and an interesting device called the Samsung Galaxy Beam projector smartphone combo device. We’ll have more on both of those products, shortly.

More About: Mobile World Congress, samsung, Tablet

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Several job opportunities require that applicants also have experience with Pinterest -- the hot visual social bookmarking tool. If you're not up to speed about Pinterest yet, read the introduction to Pinterest and how bloggers can use Pinterest to get the basics.

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Eventually, Facebook’s 845 million users will have to climb abroad the Facebook Timeline hub.

There will be plenty of challenges to consider with the slow roll-out of updates to the world’s largest social network affecting millions of people.

More than 18.4 million Americans have used Facebook to find a job. Facebook Timeline poses new obstacles for current adults looking for work.

How can the Timeline mess up an existing job search? Here are three things job seekers should avoid doing on Facebook Timeline.

Whine

Thousands of users are making it clear that they hate Facebook Timeline, especially in their status updates. Complaining about Facebook Timeline — among other things — will lead people to think you will not be able to handle the little things once you get a job.

Employers are Googling you to get a first impression of who you are and what you will be like at the company. The virtual complaining can come back and haunt you.

Refusing to Adjust, Take Advantage of New Things

It should be abundantly clear that Facebook Timeline is different, which can be a good thing. (...)

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Two of our top comments this week are responses to an article about the Apple’s Foxconn controversy. Other top reader comments ponder the value of Google’s Foursquare competitor and responds to a British hacker’s violation of Facebook.

Keep responding to Mashable articles for a chance to be featured in next week’s Top Mashable Comments. No comment goes unread and we are always on the lookout for thoughtful responses from our readers.

Samsung Galaxy Note Ad - Genuine?

Mário Rodrigues shares an insightful response to an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy Note. He questions the legitimacy of the ad and the knowledge of the iPhone user portrayed.

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More About: community, mashable, mashable conversations, mashable fol, mashable follow, online community unconference, top comments

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1. Bahrain

The situation in #Bahrain is a popular subject for photos on Twitter every day. This picture of a child in the middle of a street battle was posted by @Reality_Bahrain.

Click here to view this gallery.

Each week there are even more Twitter photos to choose from, and this week our eagle-eyed researchers at Skylines used a trusty algorithm to browse through 45 million photos. Here’s what landed on the top of the list.

The treasure trove of pictures include a look at London Fashion Week, New Orleans celebrations on the last night of Mardi Gras, Linsanity and much more.

If you’d like to know more about our top-secret selection process, well, we’re not going to tell you anything about that, but you can see our full results here.

If you missed them, here are last week’s Top 10 Twitter Pics.

More About: Skylines, Top 10 Twitter Pics, trending, Twitter

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With an average of 1.36 million users daily, the social photo pinboard has taken the web by storm, and top online retailers are following suit. Who are these feverish pinners? According to full service agency Modea, the majority are female mothers — 28 percent have a household income of $100k+.

Using stats from comScore and a few other analyses, full service agency Modea has put a few interesting facts about Pinterest into visual form with this infographic.

Do you spend more time on Facebook or Pinterest? Let us know in the comments.

More About: features, infographic, pinterest, Social Media, statistics, trending

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• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
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1. How To Pronounce Hamburger

This seems like a good place to start. Many of the words are simple words that are rarely mistaken for being pronounced any other way. They abide by the phonetic laws of English. When they're pronounced incorrectly, it's pretty darn funny.

Click here to view this gallery.

YouTube videos encompass virtually every niche and genre known to man. Falling somewhere in between silly and educational, the PronunciationManual channel has made a science out of hilariously incorrect eight-second word pronunciations.

We corresponded via email with the anonymous creator of the videos to find out what inspired the project.

It appears that the channel was not launched as a satire on the PronouncationBook, a channel dedicated to pronouncing some of the more whacky-looking English words, but created out of benevolence.

“I am a very good person, so with the combination of being a very good person and knowing that people need help, it was a natural fit, like how celebrities take away poor infant children from terrible villages to live inside of custom Bottega Veneta child holsters, except in the form of pronunciation videos on YouTube.”

Asked to provide any sort of background information, the creator was recalcitrant. But the person behind the curtain certainly wasn’t shy about the process of identifying and pronouncing new words — or that they have easy access to an online thesaurus. (...)

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This year’s Mobile World Congress is fast approaching — are you caught up on all of Mashable‘s digital media resources? If not, don’t fret. Here’s our convenient and comprehensive weekly features roundup.

This week we have a list of free Android apps you’ll use every day, tips for reaching voters successfully via social media and how to get your Facebook friends’ birthdays onto your Google calendar. We’ve also covered everything you need to know about the new PlayStation Vita, tips for small business marketing on Facebook and an explanation of how Google’s +1 button affects SEO. You’ll even find an interview with Zooey Deschanel and Sophia Rossi as two of the three co-founders of HelloGiggles, a new website for empowering young women.

If you’re looking for the best social media, business and technology resources, you’ve come to the right place:

Editor’s Picks

• Pinterest or Porn-terest? What the Social Network Is Doing to Keep It Clean
  If you’ve browsed Pinterest, you may have seen a nude photo or two. Here is Pinterest’s policy and what its team is doing about it.
• 5 Tips for Reaching Voters in the Social Stream
  2012 might be the year where social media marketing can make or break a political campaign. Here are tips to drive political awareness using new media channels.
• How HelloGiggles Creates a Positive Online Community for Young Women
  HelloGiggles is warming up the cold, often critical world of the web, with fun and empowering, lady-friendly content.
• How Google’s +1 Button Affects SEO
  Google’s +1 button doesn’t share content to the stream the way the Facebook “Like” does, but there must be a connection to search. Here’s what we know so far. (...)

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Flickr users can block pinning by changing a “Yes” to a “No” in user Privacy Settings. Simply state “No” in the area where you “Allow others to share your stuff.” The Pinterest “nopin” code will be enabled.

“Flickr has implemented the new tag that Pinterest introduced, and it now appears on all non-public/non-safe pages, as well as when a member has disabled sharing of their Flickr content,” Jason Khoury, Director of Yahoo! Global Product Communications told Mashable in an email.

Pinterest users can pin all pictures that are public, but only if sharing is not prohibited by the images’ owners.

In an experiment on Flickr, we were able to pin many non-creative-commons pictures, labelled “All Rights Reserved” onto our Pinterest pinboards.

Stephen Woods — a Flickr web developer — told users they would be able to opt out starting this week. The “nopin” code was created by Pinterest allows web publishers, companies and individuals to protect copyrighted content.

The Flickr implementation of the Pinterest opt-out code was first suggested by a user.

“We liked this idea so much we went ahead and did it. The photo page now includes this tag if you have opted out of sharing (or if it is not a public photo). (...)

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1. Playboy Club in Space

Playboy's dreaming up a way to team up with Virgin Galactic for the ultimate in space tourism: a Playboy Club in Earth's orbit.

The magazine consulted with scientists and futurists to dream up the wild concept that includes a zero-gravity dance club, weightless human roulette, and of course, an opportunity to join the space version of the mile-high club (which might not be as easy as it seems).

You won't be able to book your tickets to this "intergalactic entertainment destination" just yet. Playboy vows to offer "a party that's out of this world" as soon as space tourism becomes a reality.

[via Space.com]

Click here to view this gallery.

With feet planted firmly on the ground (wearing a new kind of ultralight Nike shoe), we reach into space once again in this edition of Top 10 Tech This Week.

In our picture gallery, you’ll see accessories, technical marvels, conveniences and innovations you’ve never dreamed of come to life. And yes, there is one unusual innovation that some Americans might consider unnecessary — even shocking.

Along the way, we’ll get a close-up look at a spectacular new concept car, accompanied by two bonus pics we’re sure you’ll enjoy. So figuratively strap yourself into our fast-moving bullet train, as we take you from inner space to outer space and beyond. (...)

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