The D4s: Digital Dirk's Daily Downloads

Best Buy and Vivint Strike Deal to bring Smart Homes to your local store

2017-05-08T10:10:00.002-04:00

Best Buy and Vivint have reached a deal to bring Vivint smart home technology products to 400 stores. Expect to see at least one Vivint employee in each store to help shoppers gain a greater understanding of what smart homes can do for them and help them overcome their fears.

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Zappos, Where A 9-Hour Customer Service Phone Chat Is A Good Thing

2012-12-26T10:41:00.001-05:00

Zappos, Where A 9-Hour Customer Service Phone Chat Is A Good Thing:

(kimaroo)

Many front-line customer service reps are judged on how quickly they can get a customer off the phone, a metric we’ve repeatedly pointed out leads to consumers’ issues going unresolved. But the folks at Zappos.com apparently aren’t as clock-minded, with one record-setting call crossing the nine-hour mark.
In fact, that endurance test of a phone call was closer to 10 hours, finally clocking in at nine hours and 37 minutes....

Via the Consumerist.

Bad Siri! She'll let anyone use a locked iPhone 4S

2011-10-19T20:30:00.001-04:00

The voice-activated feature on the new iPhone 4S will let anyone use the phone to send e-mails and text messages and make calls even if it is passcode locked, Macworld has reported....

Via CNET News

It’s a beautiful day for some baseball...searches, that is

2011-10-19T20:24:00.001-04:00

These days, thanks to the movie “Moneyball,” everyone is talking about evaluating baseball through the lens of data and statistics. As the World Series matchup between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals begins, we thought: why not take a look at what the search data says about the players, managers and other aspects of the 2011 baseball postseason?

Let’s start with the teams themselves. The Cardinals are more popular in search than the Rangers. Perhaps that’s because the Redbirds—not your typical underdogs with 10 World Series titles and 18 pennants—were 10 games back from the NL Wild Card in September, and have since overpowered the regular season’s best Phillies, then their division mates the Brewers to win the NLCS last weekend. The Rangers are in the World Series for the second year in a row, still without a title to their name; yet searches were higher in the last months for the team they defeated in the ALCS, the Detroit Tigers, who saw an even steeper increase in search interest than the Cardinals.

The Cards are known first and foremost for their hitting, but Chris Carpenter overtook first baseman Albert Pujols for a period earlier this month after the former pitched a complete game against Philadelphia to advance his team to the NLCS.

...

Via Official Google Blog

Report: Great Scot! DMC announces all-electric DeLorean for 2013

2011-10-19T20:21:00.001-04:00

Given the car's iconic classic/futuristic status, it's no surprise that the DeLorean DMC-12 is a popular car for DIY electric car conversions. That an honest-to-goodness official DeLorean EV is coming from Humble, Texas' reborn DeLorean Motor Company itself, though? That we did not see coming. It makes sense, though. If you're gonna build a ~~time machine~~ electric car, why not do it with some style?...

Via AutoBlog

It’s Official: To Protect Baby’s Brain, Turn Off TV

2011-10-19T20:18:00.001-04:00

A decade ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that parents limit TV consumption by children under two years of age. The recommendations were based as much on common sense as science, because studies of media consumption and infant development were themselves in their infancy.
The research has finally grown up. And though it’s still ongoing, it’s mature enough for the AAP to release a new, science-heavy policy statement on babies watching television, videos or any other passive media form.
Their verdict: It’s not good, and probably bad.
Media, whether playing in the background or designed explicitly as an infant educational tool, “have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years,” concluded the AAP’s report, released Oct. 18 at the Academy’s annual meeting in Boston and scheduled for November publication in the journal Pediatrics. “Although infant/toddler programming might be entertaining, it should not be marketed as or presumed by parents to be educational.”...

Via Wired

How to Deal With a Job You Hate

2011-10-19T20:10:00.001-04:00

It’d be great if we all had creative, fulfilling jobs with fantastic bosses and brilliant colleagues. The truth is, though, that an awful lot of people – some figures suggesting as many as 80% - are dissatisfied with their jobs....

Via Dumb Little Man

Ski Lift Ticket Retailer Liftopia Raises $1.3 Million

2011-10-19T19:49:00.002-04:00

...For those unfamiliar with the service, Liftopia lets you buy your lift tickets online and in advance. By doing so, consumers can save up to 80% off the walk-up rates for the lifts. Resorts benefit too, by insuring against volatile weather conditions, snow conditions and other events that may keep skiiers away from the slopes....

Via TechCrunch

The New Version of Google Presentations

2011-10-19T19:40:00.001-04:00

There's a new version of Google Presentations that has both a new interface and new features that bring it on par with the other Google Docs apps. To try the new version, go to the settings page, select the "editing" tab, enable "Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor", go back to Google Docs and create a new presentation.

Google Presentations has an HTML5 rich-text editor created from the scratch by Google and initially available in Google's online word processor. The editor supports character-by-character collaboration, transitions and animations, rich tables with merged cells, drawing charts and diagrams within the presentation and using shapes to link to other sides. Google Presentations also includes some new themes....

Via Google Operating System

Google Shows Your IP Address

2011-10-19T19:38:00.001-04:00

One way to find your IP address is to search for [my ip] using Google and click the top search result. Now it's no longer necessary to go to the first result because Google answers your questions and shows your IP. You can use: [my ip], [my ip address], [show my ip], [what is my ip] and other similar queries.

....

Via Google Operating System

Chrome Experiment - Infinite E-bookcase

2011-10-19T19:36:00.001-04:00

Sesame Street YouTube channel hit by porn hack

2011-10-17T21:49:00.001-04:00

Sesame Street's YouTube channel has been taken offline after hackers uploaded several pornographic videos.

The changes appeared to have been made by someone called Mredxwx, although a member who uses that name denied involvement.

A message posted alongside the adult videos stated: "Who doesn't like porn kids?"...

Via BBC News

Teenagers Will, Like, Totally Abandon Facebook for Google+

2011-10-17T21:46:00.001-04:00

...Will Teens Abandon Facebook for Google+?

Teenagers aren't thrilled about the changes on Facebook and 25% said they would be using Google+ more often. In fact, teens say that Google+ is actually more social than Facebook, which is trying to become more news-oriented.

Teens really disliked the news ticker, calling it a "scrolling stalker" that just felt like a distraction. They tended to worry that the ticker showed them information that they weren't supposed to be seeing, or that "is not theirs to see." And that's one feature that Google+ has no plans to build....

Via ReadWriteWeb

How to Create your own Google Maps

2011-10-17T21:43:00.001-04:00

Would you like to create a custom Google Map of all the wonderful cities that you have visited so far. Or maybe an annotated map that offers easy driving directions to the wedding venue? Or maybe you have customers in different parts of the world and you would like to display testimonials on one Google Map.

These are just some of the many scenarios where you may want to build your own maps. Let’s now look at some of the best online tools that make it easy for us to create custom maps in the browser without requiring any programming knowledge.

How to Make Custom Google Maps

One of the easiest way to create custom maps is through the Google Maps website itself. Open maps.google.com and click Create Map under My Places (see screenshot). Next search for a place, or drop a placemark manually, and save it to your custom map. Repeat until you have added all the places to the Google Map....

This story, How to Create your own Google Maps, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on October 17, 2011 under Google Maps, Internet.

NY Magazine's Focus On Daily Blogs Leads To Traffic Boost

2011-10-17T21:32:00.001-04:00

New York magazine’s website traffic has grown significantly in the past year by finding that the sum of the parts really are greater than the whole.
Instead of just repurposing articles from the weekly cultural magazine, NY has put greater emphasis on building out its daily news blogs aimed at entertainment, fashion, food and politics to produce 10.5 million monthly unique users for September, the highest number in the site’s 13-year history. At the same time, NY’s online advertising dollars are pacing up 25 percent since last year, and has already doubled since 2009.

While NY’s traffic numbers are internal, comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) agrees that the site’s monthly uniques have risen 22 percent last month compared to Sept. 2010, though the audience measurement service says the magazine’s site drew 5.59 million visitors that month. (Most sites have large discrepancies between their internal numbers and comScore’s monthly tally)....

Via paidContent.org

The first email was sent 40 years ago this month

2011-10-17T21:29:00.001-04:00

It’s become a firm fixture of everyday life, loathed by some but essential to nearly all of us, and yet its future is far from certain. Email is forty years old this month, with the first message having been sent in October 1971....

Via The Next Web

The GM College Anti-Bike Campaign

2011-10-17T21:17:00.001-04:00

The marketing geniuses at General Motors launched this campaign this week. It’s aimed at convincing college kids already paying exorbitant tuition and living well beyond their means that they can go another $20k in debt and somehow pay the monthly insurance on a sweet new car. You’ll recognize the humiliated cyclist riding an uncool bike from the 80s and a similarly dull helmet because that’s you and me a few years back....

Via Backcountry.com

BlackBerry cuts made roads safer, police say

2011-10-17T21:11:00.001-04:00

A dramatic fall in traffic accidents this week has been directly linked to the three-day disruption in BlackBerry services.

In Dubai, traffic accidents fell 20 per cent from average rates on the days BlackBerry users were unable to use its messaging service. In Abu Dhabi, the number of accidents this week fell 40 per cent and there were no fatal accidents.
On average there is a traffic accident every three minutes in Dubai, while in Abu Dhabi there is a fatal accident every two days.

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the chief of Dubai Police, and Brig Gen Hussein Al Harethi, the director of the Abu Dhabi Police traffic department, linked the drop in accidents to the disruption of BlackBerry services between Tuesday and Thursday....

Via The National

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

2011-10-17T21:06:00.001-04:00

Via Make

Video: Meet ecoATM, The Reverse Vending Machine That Takes Your Phone & Spits Out Cash

2011-10-12T20:59:00.001-04:00

Take this one, for example: Called the ecoATM, it’s essentially a reverse vending machine for phone sales — or, put another way, it’s the concept of Gazelle (or any other online cell phone/gadget buyback service) made into a kiosk. Insert old phone, get money back....

Via TechCrunch

Building an amazing mobile shopping experience with Google Commerce Search

2011-10-12T20:53:00.001-04:00

Mobile usage in retail is on the rise—every year we see an increasing number of shopping queries originate from mobile phones. As mobile continues to proliferate, it’s also fundamentally changing the way people shop. Mobile and shopping are made for each other.

Knowing this, we’re sharing a secret with you: it’s not too late to get your e-commerce site ready for the mobile surge this holiday shopping season. In fact, our newest customer, Timberland, just went live with their mobile-optimized website powered by Google Commerce Search in a matter of days....

Via Official Google Blog

The Guardian iPad Edition Hits iOS 5 Newsstands

2011-10-12T20:51:00.001-04:00

Just in time to hit the new iOS 5 Newsstand, The Guardian has launched a swanky new iPad edition. The app delivers content mirroring The Guardian's Monday through Saturday papers, but the design is all digital. Pages swing smoothly between portrait and landscape modes, the ads are interactive, and photos and videos abound.

The app is only available for iPad users running the newly released iOS 5. To promote the launch, the first 87 issues of the iPad edition are free. After that trial period, the cost of a weekly subscription is £9.99 or $13.99 per month....

Via ReadWriteWeb

Paywalls Spread To College Newspapers

2011-10-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

Students work for their college newspapers for all sorts of reasons—and while college papers are sheltered from the harsh realities facing national and local newspapers in many ways, it’s probably never too early for a crash course in revenue models. Hence the new collaboration between digital subscription company Press+ and the Knight Foundation: Starting today, the first 50 college newspapers to sign up with Press+ will be able to install free meters on their websites, allowing them to collect donations and subscription fees from readers.

Press+, which is owned by RR Donnelley (NSDQ: RRD) and already operates metered paywalls for “grownup” newspapers like the Baltimore Sun and many MediaNews Group and Lee papers, says it is “providing students with a sustainable way to target parents, alumni, and other engaged readers for donations or subscriptions.”...

Via paidContent.org

Should We Pass A Law To Stop Yelp From Harming Chain Restaurants?

2011-10-12T20:39:00.001-04:00

We keep hearing stories about how "the internet is killing music" or "the internet is killing newspapers," which inevitably seem to suggest that "something must be done," and often that "something" involves the government getting involved. Of course, if you look at the details, you realize that the internet isn't killing music or journalism at all. In many ways it's just changing both and enabling new means of creation, distribution, promotion and sales. But, people like to interpret the struggles of one part of an industry, and pretend that represents the wider industry -- and then insist something must be done.

But, of course, one part of an industry becoming obsolete due to technology and market changes is the natural path of disruption, and not a cause for concern. Just to highlight this point, it's worth pointing to a Washington Post article with the title, How Yelp is killing chain restaurants. It refers to a study (pdf) that looked into the impact of Yelp reviews on restaurants. Among its many findings was that the market share of big chain restaurants appears to have declined...

Via Techdirt

Japanese Company Creates Super-Realistic 3D Face Replicas

2011-10-12T20:18:00.002-04:00

If you’ve ever dreamed of getting a super-realistic replica of your face for whatever reason, here’s your chance: a Japanese company called REAL-f [JP] is creating so-called 3DPFs (“3 Dimension Photo Forms”), copies of human faces “in 3D”. The startup offers two versions, a mask type replica and the so-called mannequin type, a replica of the head....

Via TechCrunch