winobsfever.com’s Saved Items

Coldplay’s Google+ page is the first to reach 1 million followers

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:41:15 GMT

While Britney Spears has set a blazing trail on Google+, as the first personal account to reach first 1 million, and then 2 million followers, when it comes to official Google+ pages, that accolade has just gone to British alternative rock band, Coldplay.

When it comes to Google+ pages, the figure is slightly skewed as it includes the number of people who have +1′d the page as well. But according to ZoomSphere, a social media statistics site, Coldplay was the first page to cross the 1 million follower mark.

Since the end of January, the page has almost doubled in followers with a huge growth spurt in just this past month.

Elsewhere in social media, Coldplay has 5.8 million followers on Twitter, a far cry from the top 10 with Lady Gaga leading with over 19 million followers. On Facebook, the official Coldplay page has 18 million followers, which also trails far behind the top 10 list.

Next in line on Google+’s top 10 most followed pages is yet another band. The official Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Google+ page has over 700,000 followers, followed by Pearl Jam, 106 and Park, Team Coco, ESPN, Sugarland, FC Barcelona, Train and Chelsea Football Club.

It’s interesting that out of the top 10 Google+ pages, four of them are mainstream bands, all of which fit into the alternative rock band genre, with not a single official Google-related page, or anything remotely geeky in sight for that matter. Google’s own official page has just over 170,000 followers, while the official Google+ page has just over 140,000.

Introduced in November, Google+ pages have been growing at an impressive rate, outpacing Twitter’s official brand accounts by about four times, but still lagging in comparison to Facebook.

Connect Google account to Windows Live account

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:08:34 GMT

You can now connect your Google Account to your Windows Live account. By connecting your Google account to your Windows Live account, you will be able to view status updates, post status updates, integrate contacts directly to/from your Windows Live ...more >>>

Samsung Announces 10.1-Inch Galaxy Tab 2

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:40:46 GMT

BARCELONA: Samsung is expanding its Galaxy Tab tablet line with the brand new Galaxy Tab 2 lineup: a 7.0-inch variant and a 10.1-inch variant.

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

It’s Official: Samsung Has a 10.1 Inch Galaxy Note

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:30:55 GMT

BARCELONA: We’re getting set for our first big meeting of Mobile World Congress, but Samsung is making no secret about what they plan on showing us this morning. A substantial portion of the first floor of the Fira Palace Hotel in Barcelona is festooned with giant images of Samsung’s latest Android Tablet: the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Like the 5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, this 10.1-inch tablet has a stylus.

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

Google is now a connected service to Windows Live

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:59:25 GMT

Ever since Wave 3, Windows Live have always had the ability to connect within various social services from across the web, most notably services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. By connecting other social services and websites to Windows Live, depending on the connection, you’ll be able to do things like viewing and posting status updates directly to/from Windows Live, integrating the contact list (which automatically de-duplicates for you), or in Facebook’s case, access Facebook Chat from Windows Live.

There are currently over 88 connected services from all across the world available on Windows Live. However, while YouTube and Blogger are available as a connected service, Google itself never made it onto the list. While you could always “import” your Google contacts into Windows Live (meaning their contact details are copied over to as a Windows Live contact instead), this is different from having it exist as a connected service (where there is a link between Windows Live and Google, and any updates to the contacts on Google will be reflected in Windows Live periodically). We’ve recently noticed that this is changing, and Google is now finally available as a connected service to Windows Live:

At the moment, you can access your Google contacts from Messenger and Hotmail, and Windows Live will do the de-duplication for you in case you have the same contact on Messenger, Facebook or LinkedIn already:

However, the social aspects of Google+ are not available yet, so don’t expect your Google+ social feeds to start flowing into your Messenger Social or Windows Phone. This might set to change in the future, given that Microsoft is continuously expanding the connected service’s capability over time (for example, most recently with China’s micro-blogging service Sina Weibo). There was also a wild rumor that Google+ is coming to Windows Phone, although the validity of the source is questionable.

You can connect Google to Windows Live now by clicking here.

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Beam brings projection to your hands

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:40:00 GMT

It seems projector phones haven't died just yet, as the Samsung Galaxy Beam has been unveiled at MWC 2012.

It's not the first phone from the Koreans with that name, but it seems that the moniker is sticking around for this svelter model.

The Galaxy Beam now features a frame that's only 12.5mm thin, a dual core 1GHz processor and a 5MP camera on the rear.

Thinner and brighter

It's sadly only rocking Android 2.3 rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, but there's a 4-inch screen with 800x480 resolution, and that projector bolted on the top is capable of 15 lumens of brightness.

This equates to a 50-inch picture on your lounge wall, and Samsung even promises that you can view it outdoors as well… although we're intrigued to see how that works out in real life.

There's a 2000mAh battery underneath should you feel like getting into a monster gaming session, and 8GB of internal memory with a 32GB micro SD slot. Samsung is also claiming 6GB of RAM as well on this beast, but we're checking that stat out as it seems a little unlikely.

We'll be bringing you our hands on: Samsung Galaxy Beam review in the near future – whether it will ever land on our shores remains to be seen though.

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 announced

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:13:00 GMT

Samsung has decided to get in just before MWC 2012 kicks off and has unveiled the next in its second-generation tablet range: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1.

Following on from the Tab 2 7.0, the new larger-screened device features the likes of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich to you and me) a 1GHz dual core processor and a 3MP rear-facing camera.

A 7000mAh battery promises to keep you going through the day, and there's a VGA front-facing camera for video calling should the wind take you.

The same, but different…

However, Android ICS aside, there's not a lot that we can see to really call this an upgrade over the original 10.1 – and it's even thicker and fatter than the original to boot.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 was a similar affair – an update to the latest version of Google's OS but not much of a difference in the way of specs.

We're hoping the fact we're seeing a re-badged model from last year means we'll be getting something of a price plunge too – given the first Tab 10.1 can be had for around £360 now, a sub-£300 tag would be just lovely. We have been given a Galaxy 2 10.1 UK release date of March, so not long to wait now.

We're going to be getting our mitts on this latest tablet very soon, so stay plugged into TechRadar if you can't wait for our hands on: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 review. Especially for the number fans among you.

Stephan s Quintet

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 07:01:10 GMT

The first identified compact galaxy group,

Nokia Lumia 800 Telstra launches March 13th?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 04:56:42 GMT

Nokia announced back in January that the Nokia Lumia 800 would land in Australia back in January. Nokia did mention March but failed to make mention which day in March. We are now seeing speculation is strong that the Lumia 800 will launch through Telstra on March 13, 2012. There's also a few rumors on pricing.

The outright price of the Lumia 800 is expected to be $672. Plans with no Mobile Repayment Option should start with the $59 Freedom Connect Plan and, if I understand the Telstra plans, there will be a $49 Freedom Connect Plan with a $10 MRO payment.

The Lumia 800 is expected to be offered in Black and White versions at launch. Which is an interesting combination itself.

Granted Telstra hasn't made an official statement on the Lumia 800 and there's no mention of the Windows Phone on their website. The nice thing about it all is that we'll know in just a short time if these rumors hold true.

Source: wpdownunder; Thanks, Sheeds, for the tip!

Image: The Eastern Coast of the United States Seen at Night From the Space Station

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 04:00:53 GMT

One of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the eastern (Atlantic) coast of the United States. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area spanning almost to Rhode Island are visible in the scene. Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the Greater Metropolitan area of New York City are visible in the lower right quadrant. Large cities in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) are near center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground. ISS030-E-078095 (6 Feb. 2012) --- high res (1.3 M) low res (89 K)

Adobe releases Photoshop Touch for iPad 2 prematurely, pulls it from App Store [Updated]

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 02:17:09 GMT

Updated: It appears as if someone pulled the trigger on this release too soon, as it was originally intended to be released tomorrow at midnight. Adobe has now removed the app from the App Store and it should show up again Monday morning.

Nearly a year after showing off a demo of the App, Adobe has finally released Photoshop Touch for the iPad. According to 9to5Mac, it’s presently available in the Australia and New Zealand app stores, and should hit the US version sometime in the next few hours with a $9.99 price tag.

Of course, for those of you who might own a Android tablet, this is old news. Photoshop Touch has been available on Android for quite some time. It has always struck me as strange that Adobe would release on Android first, given Apple’s dominance in the design sphere, but fact is fact.

“People will be amazed with what they can create on the iPad using Photoshop Touch,” said David Wadhwani of Adobe. “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.”

Photoshop Touch gives users the ability to combine multiple photos into layered images, make essential edits and apply professional effects to create beautiful artwork, touch up photos, paint, lay out ideas, and much more. The Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep and, then, what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges are easily captured when making selections. Photoshop Touch helps users quickly find images and share creations through integration with Facebook and Google Image Search

The company released a total of 6 tablet apps only a few months ago, including Photoshop Touch, but they were all for Android only. Now, at least for some of the apps, iOS owners get some love too.

Photoshop Touch, via the App Store

Nokia Belle phones get business-friendly Microsoft Apps suite

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:55:06 GMT

Microsoft's and Nokia's partnership hasn't been great for Symbian — it has seen Nokia commit to Windows Phone, after all — but at least those who have recently upgraded to Belle will have something to thank the software giant for. Nokia has announced that its first installment of Microsoft Apps are now available on Belle devices. The package includes the powerful note-taking tool OneNote, the business communication and IM client Lync, a document viewer and manager called Document Connection, and PowerPoint Broadcast, which lets you follow live presentations on your phone.

While some of these apps already exist on other mobile platforms, we're sure business users will appreciate the free additions. You'll notice that none of the...

The Walking Dead: How computers help zombies multiply

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:09:14 GMT

If you have ever dreamed of playing a zombie in the US cult series The Walking Dead, we have bad news; there are far fewer extras on the set that you may think.

This is only one of the dirty little secrets revealed in a video posted on Vimeo by the visual effects house Stargate Studios. Here’s a surprising behind-the-scenes look at how one of our favorite shows is made:

Walking Dead Season 2 VFX Reel from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.

Top 3 Mistakes Job Seekers Make on Facebook Timeline

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:01:02 GMT

Tony Morrison is the Vice President of Business Development at Cachinko, a unique professional community where social networking and job opportunities come together. Find him on Talent Connection and connect with Cachinko on Facebook or Twitter.

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. If you review Facebook’s introduction page, you’ll find that Timeline offers some pretty neat new features including a cover image, the ability to highlight a story and full app integration.

Job seekers should take advantage of these new features to tell a more complete story about themselves. Your Facebook Timeline should be considered an online brochure for your personal brand and what you can bring to the table.

Every time Facebook (or other social media platforms, for that matter) makes any structural changes, there is a group of people who simply won’t stand for it. This is a huge mistake. Why? Refusing to adjust means that you are likely to miss out on opportunities.

Put yourself in an employer’s shoes: If you came across a candidate who stuck to their guns and wouldn’t adjust to changes on a simple thing like Facebook, what do you think they’ll do at work? Visions of future employees protesting new filing systems or office suppliers are not good.

Neglecting to Edit

One caveat of Timeline is that the past is a whole lot more accessible. Privacy settings remain the same, but many users’ content will go all the way back to 2006 or earlier. Would you want to be held to everything you said six years ago? I know I don’t.

A big mistake job seekers will make on Facebook Timeline is not take the time to review old content and delete the stuff that simply shouldn’t be remembered. Take a stroll down memory lane. You might find some public content that should be taken down and you might also find content that is worth uncovering.

Fortunately, Facebook is allowing users to take a seven-day grace period to hammer all those potentially regrettable posts out of sight.

What do you think? Do you think Facebook Timeline is good for the job seeker? Or can it be cause for image destruction? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

CRM & Partnerships Manager at Time Out New York in New York City
Senior Front End Web Developer at Limited Brands in Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Social Media Manager at Ergobaby in Los Angeles

More About: Facebook, facebook timeline, features, job search series, jobs, mashable, timeline

HP reportedly planning Windows 8 tablets using Intel and Qualcomm processors

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:12:04 GMT

HP CEO Meg Whitman recently told investors that the company will be shipping Windows 8 products by the end of the year, and now CNET is reporting some possible details about its tablet plans. According to the site, HP is working on at least three different Windows 8 tablets, powered by chips from Intel and Qualcomm. The two Intel models are said to utilize the chipmaker's 32nm Atom Clover Trail platform, and will come in two distinct form factors. The first is reportedly a laptop / tablet hybrid — a device type that some of HP's competitors believe in — while the second is a more traditional tablet aimed at business customers. The third product is said to be powered by a Qualcomm processor, though no additional details are given. C...

13 ‘Pinteresting’ Facts About Pinterest Users [INFOGRAPHIC]

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:37:05 GMT

It’s no secret that the Internet loves Pinterest. Now, most users are even spending more time, on average, pinning than they are on hanging out on Facebook. Here’s what you need to know about Pinterest user demographics.

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+.

SEE ALSO: 10 Most-Followed Users on Pinterest

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

For more Social Media coverage:

Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Social Media channel
Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Flickr vs. Pinterest: Flickr Users Can Now Implement Pinterest Opt-Out

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:02:50 GMT

Users on the Yahoo-owned photo social network Flickr can now block Pinterest aficionados from tacking Flickr pictures onto their beloved online image boards.

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.

SEE ALSO: Sorry, Pinterest Users: Websites Can Now Block Pinning [VIDEO]

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). Thanks for the suggestion!” Woods stated on a Flickr help section thread.

Meaning, Flickr users will have the power to share photos Pinterest admirers, or not. Now, Flickr’s default setting is to not allow sharing of images on Pinterest, but that can be easily changed to allow sharing.

The Pinterest opt-out option will prompt a message that says: “This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

The two-year-old social bookmarking website that has gained 13 million users (and counting) in 10 months is gaining naysayers just as quickly because of copyright issues.

Usually, the “pinning” action will automatically link back to the original source of the pin. Pictures are often not credited when a person saves an image to their desktop and uploads it onto a board from there.

Flickr photographers Mashable contacted for the story had this to say:

Jennifer Sosa, a lifestyle and wedding photographer, has Pinterest and Flickr accounts.

“Back in the day with magazines, you would tear up the magazine and put it on a bulletin board,” Sosa said. “Pinterest is a way of categorizing it. I think it’s bizarre people see it as a violation of copyright. I see people pinning my stuff and I’m happy.”

Lee Cullivan is also a professional photographer on Flickr. He believes giving users access to a Pinterest opt-out is great.

“I think is the right thing to do,” he said. “As long as my photograph would be credited, unaltered, and linked back to the Flickr site I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, dabblelicious

More About: copyright infringement, flickr, pinterest, Social Media, social networking, Yahoo

For more Social Media coverage:

Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Social Media channel
Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Incredible mockup of Windows desktop gone Metro-like

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:46:13 GMT

We have some incredible people doing some incredible stuff in the forums, and Verge user Sputnik8 just went all out with a detailed, comprehensive, and incredible-looking mockup of the Windows desktop with a full-on Metro-ish skinning. In case you're more familiar with Windows Phone's aesthetic, this is more like the Zune desktop app, or that early glimpse we got of Office 15. Except it's even cleaner than Microsoft's own efforts. Somebody in Redmond better hire this guy quick.

NASA MRO Image of Mars: Active Erosion in Pasteur Crater

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:57:46 GMT

This image shows knobs and bluffs that are being actively eroded by the Martian wind. Fine, light-toned sedimentary layering is exposed in the bedrock at the base of the cliffs.

NASA LRO Image of the Moon: Crater Hermann B: Rim on a Rim

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:55:12 GMT

Crater rims are a boundary between the inside and outside of a crater. Thus the rim is also where the slope changes from steeply down into a crater to the shallow sloping exterior. This change in slope results in a ridge along which dry debris flows often form and carve backwards into the rim. This fresh crater is almost on top of the rim of Hermann B, so what does the whole crater look like? A context image might give us an idea.

Live from Mobile World Congress 2012!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:49:59 GMT

OK, all you Windows Phone fanatics out there. We've got boots on the ground in surprisingly sunny Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress 2012. Microsoft doesn't have the in-your-face presence of years past since Windows Phone 7 no longer is the young upstart OS of years past. But as you can see from the clock on the Hotel Catalunya, just across the street from the Fira de Barcelona where we'll be spending a lot of time this week, the folks from Redmond are certainly letting us know they're here.

And we're here as well. So check back all next week for live coverage from the Mobile World Capital and your friends at Mobile Nations!

Marketplace Public Sector Apps Categories

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:39:08 GMT

Selecting the right category for your apps is your first step towards success.
We have made it very simple by providing the only explicit Government category in ANY mobile marketplace/store.
When you are ready to publish your Public Sector apps here are the categories we recommend:

Health + Fitness
Diet + Nutrition
Fitness
Health

Education

Government + Politics
Commentary
Government Resources
Legal Issues
Politics

Next time you publish a new app or upgrade consider revising the category to maximize app visibility!

Joel Reyes

GET FREE

Phone: Tools, Devices
Cloud: Tools, Account
Client: WebMatrix
Resources: Infokit
Apps Ideas: Ideas

GitHub’s Zach Holman to developers: Twitter and Facebook are not word of mouth

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:23:38 GMT

There are a few prolific speakers and bloggers in the world of development. Dave Winer, of course, comes to mind almost immediately But one that I’ve always enjoyed reading is Zach Holman, of GitHub. One of his recent writings, about the work that developers often hand over to their users, caused quite the stir. But at the same time it made me (and many others) reconsider how it is that we’re running our companies.

Holman joined the crowd at SuperConf 2012 in Miami today with a talk entitled “Side Projects”. But his real message had to do with promotions, self-promotion and word of mouth. (You can catch Holman’s slide deck here.)

Word of mouth, according to Holman, is content. It’s not a Facebook share button or a Twitter button asking your users to tweet. Word of mouth is what happens to make people genuinely excited to tell their friends. But far too often in technology, people are afraid to talk about what they’re doing. Holman chalks this up to modesty:

“There are a lot of modest people in technology, and this is great. That’s why here aren’t as many douchebags in our industry. But overall you have to not be nervous about talking about something that you’re really excited about.”

So how do you excite people? Holman has two schools of thought that he sums up as being quiet or being loud. In the camp of quiet, which is the model that GitHub follows, changes, fixes and upgrades are never pre-announced. You simply show up one day with a greeting of “good morning. We fixed everything that you had a problem with for the last year.” It’s a matter of surprising and delighting, which Holman notes as happening far too little these days.

“It’s a sad fact about our society that when you care about people and go the extra mile, it’s noteworthy.”

The other side of the story comes from those who are being loud. Holman brings up 37signals in an example, which is especially interesting because the company tends to under-promise and over-deliver as a rule. But Holman points out a recent change where 37signals pre-announced numerous features and fixes. But there’s a catch – if you’re going to be noisy, you have to make absolutely certain that you’re meeting deadlines.

These are the actions that get word of mouth moving. Not a tweet, not a Facebook share. Because those only go so far. Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself, your company and what you’re doing. It’s another step toward that word of mouth.

As another case in point, Holman brings up Apple’s launch of the initial iPhone. Announced in January, the company was then quiet for the next few months, leading up to the July release. But then, in June, something magical happened. Apple ran a couple of ads, but it was also uncharacteristically transparent about the development. The release of the SKD, the choice to upgrade to a glass screen from plastic – these, among others, were announcements that led to the company getting no fewer than 7 mentions in the national press

Finally, Holman has some parting advice that I think all of us could use:

“F__k the haters.”

That doesn’t mean to ignore your users. It means that you can’t pay attention to the 1 nasty tweet while ignoring the hundreds of positive ones. Keep focused, keep your product moving and do what you know you’re supposed to be doing.

When Parents Text: 15 Funniest Picks

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:22:49 GMT

1. Flip Phone

Click here to view this gallery.

When Parents Text was launched on Tumblr in the fall of 2010 by Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli, then recent college grads.

Less than two years later, the website has received a ton of media interest — Kaelin and Fraioli have published When Parents Text: So Much Said… So Little Understood and are in talks for a TV show.

The blog obviously resonates with its audience — and for good reason. “Parental texting is almost always funny,” says Fraioli. “We usually laugh the hardest at the complete misunderstandings that tend to take place on our site. Sometimes these misunderstandings are caused by technological fumbles, but more often then not, they highlight a generational and technological divide that exists between parents and their kids. Most of us can relate to our parents just, ‘not getting it,’ and that tends to be where hilarity ensues.”

SEE ALSO: Damn You Auto Correct Founder Picks 12 Funniest Texts Ever

We asked the blog’s founders to pick their favorite WPT submissions. Take a look through the gallery for Lauren and Sophia’s choices. Let us know in the comments if your parents have got the hang of SMS — or whether you wish they hadn’t!

More About: blog, comedy, features, humor, Mobile, trending, tumblr

For more Entertainment coverage:

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

43% of all LinkedIn users are in the US, IBM is the company with the most followers

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:13:34 GMT

Zoomsphere, a site which provides statistics on major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Google+, has just revealed some interesting information and statistics on LinkedIn users.

It’s not surprising to find that the US has the most registered users on LinkedIn, with well over 61 million to its name. India comes in a distant second with over 14 million registered users. The US and India are joined in the top 10 by the UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and Spain.

Far more interesting, in the revealed statistics, is which companies have the most followers on the professional social media site. In the US, IBM comes in at the top of the list with over 580,000 followers.

In comparison, IBM only has just over 13,000 followers on its main Twitter account and 93,000 fans on Facebook. It is worth mentioning that the number of IBM employees on LinkedIn currently sits at over 280,000, Next in line on LinkedIn, in order of follower count are HP, Microsoft, Google and Oracle. Apple comes in at 7th place with only 251,000 followers.

Clearly, just as the nature of interactions on each social network differs, users follow a company on Twitter or Facebook for vastly different reasons than following a company on LinkedIn.

The most followed company does change by region, with Unilever topping the list in the UK, Research in Motion in Canada, Huawei in China, and Ferrari in Italy.

Despite the fact that the majority of the most followed companies are IT-related, the most common industry on LinkedIn is Higher Education, followed by Information Technology and Services, with Financial Services coming in third.

More than half of the companies list on LinkedIn have over 10,000 employees, with the number of companies decreasing as the number of employees decrease.

The most common age group on LinkedIn is, unsurprisingly, 35-44, followed closely by the 25-34 age group. There are more 18-24 year olds on LinkedIn than there are professionals over the age of 55.

Worldwide, LinkedIn has over 143 million registered users, 43% of which are in the US.

In almost all countries, there are more men registered on LinkedIn than women, with the exception of a few countries, mostly in Asia and Eastern Europe, including China, the Philippines, Romania, Finland, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Serbia and Jamaica, where female users outnumber their male counterparts, if even by a little.

We recently took a look at LinkedIn’s growth in Indonesia, where it now has over 1 million registered users, and is growing at a rate faster than Facebook. According to LinkedIn itself, we can expect far more insights into the professional world through the social network’s data in the coming months.

Can Windows 8′s Metro succeed on the desktop?

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:02:10 GMT

The biggest cloud hanging over Windows 8 is how desktop (and notebook) users will react to the new Metro user experience (which I’ll refer to as MoSh to differentiate the new “Modern Shell” from the app model and Store change). What we’ve seen in the Developer Preview, hints of later builds, and descriptions from Microsoft has already caused a lot of discussion. In a few days we’ll see the Consumer Preview, with its updated and near final implementation of MoSh. The Consumer Preview is likely to be downloaded, and used on a daily basis, by millions of people. The demographics of Consumer Preview users will lean heavily towards Power Users, meaning that those least likely to be happy about MoSh will be the ones putting it under a microscope. These are also the key influencers, so while we can expect they’ll be more negative than the general PC user population their views can’t be dismissed because they will heavily influence Windows 8 adoption. If they are too negative overall then Windows 8 is in trouble. Some will be (and already are) very vocally opposed to MoSh, but we don’t yet know if that is a small minority, substantial minority, or majority. Over the next few weeks we’ll find out.

I’m cautiously optimistic about MoSh’s chances. Before moving on to explain why I should acknowledge that what I say here may have some conflicts with my “Devil’s Advocate” piece aimed at developers. In that piece I picked a specific example of where Tablets come into the picture, and I time-compressed the reactions of the IT hierarchy to many of the changes being introduced with Windows 8, to make a point. Now I’m back to discussing short to mid-term reality.

Let me explain my own usage pattern of Windows. Going back to Windows 3.1, the first version I used regularly, I’ve had the same usage pattern. I always maximize the window I’m working on to take up the full screen. 10″, 15″, 20″, 23″ or larger monitors make no difference. Alt-Tab is my best friend as I rapidly switch back and forth between windows. Sometimes I need two windows on the screen so I can reference one while typing in another, but I hate when they overlap and I have to continually move things around so information I need is not occluded. So my norm is 1-2 non-overlapping windows. When I’m doing software development my pattern changes a bit. Then I like having more than one monitor so I can keep the window I’m concentrating on open on one and use another to keep a few smaller, non-overlapping if possible, windows open as well.

The co-founder of my old SaaS startup likes to chide me about my lack of desire for monitors much bigger than 20″ (although I’ve recently grown quite fond of a 23″ monitor) because his usage pattern is quite different from mine. He likes huge monitors, and the more of them the merrier, so he can have as many windows up on them at the same time as possible. One of my observations though was how much time he had to spend moving windows around on his monitor(s). To me it seemed like the more real-estate you gave him the more time he wasted managing it.

So there you have two people, who have been working together off and on since the 1970s, who represent two ends of the spectrum on how they use Windows’ windows. One question is, whose usage is more representative of the general population of Windows’ users? Certainly if you walk around a software developement shop I think my co-founder’s usage pattern in more common than mine, but what if you walk around the more general user population?

Let me throw out some anecdotal evidence. I go to my Insurance Agent’s office and observe both his, and his employees’ computer usage. In every case they have the app they are using in full screen mode and switch to other full screen apps as they need them. I go to my Dentist and Doctor and observe both the back office and medical personnel using that access pattern. I walk into retail stores and observe the sales people and how they use their PC and it is that full screen/app switching style. I hear call center personnel talking to themselves as they work on their PC and you can tell they are looking at one app at a time. I glance over the shoulder at travelers on airplanes and see a single application taking up the entire screen of their notebook . I watch my wife and she mostly works on a single app at a time. Anecdotally, I see few users who make regular use of Windows ability to display large numbers of windows on the screen at once. Even when I see people using multiple windows, such as those who need a lot of information being displayed at the same time (e.g., security traders) they are using non-overlappingwindows. Of course this is anecdotal data, and a very narrow slice at that, but the data Microsoft collects through its Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) telemetry is extensive and gives them a good picture into actual usage patterns. If it matches my anecdotal data then a design that optimizes for having a very small number of non-overlapping windows makes sense.

How about the Start Screen vs Start Menu controversy? In the Building Windows 8 blog Microsoft talked a lot about how their telemetry suggests that the new Start Screen approach is far superior to the Start Menu for most users. What about anecdotal data? Let’s start with one of Windows’ user experience failures. When Windows XP shipped it was stripped of all desktop icons except for the recycle bin. The recommendation (and guidance to software developers) was to not use desktop shortcuts, but rather to just use the Start Menu for all application access. And the first thing nearly every user did was ignore Microsoft and create desktop shortcuts for all the applications they regularly accessed. Software developers briefly made the default installation not put a shortcut on the desktop, but most reversed that decision on future updates. Look at many users’ (Windows XP, Vista, or 7) desktops today and they look a lot like the Windows 8 Start Screen! Now personally that is not my access pattern. I generally run applications I’ve pinned to the task bar or by hitting Start and typing to cause a search for the app. It is rare for me to actually walk the Start Menu hierarchy. Now my pattern might be reflective of Windows 7 users, but obviously isn’t reflective of Windows XP users (who have neither feature). The sprinkle lots of shortcuts on your desktop pattern is extremely common all the way back to Windows 95. And so for most users it seems that MoSh’s Start Screen actually is an acknowledgement of their actual usage pattern. Having search so well-integrated means that my usage pattern should adapt to it quite readily as well. Moreover, after a few years of iPhone, iPad, and Windows Phone usage the Start Screen paradigm may be very comfortable for me.

The anecdotal evidence and hard data seem to support the choices Microsoft made in designing MoSh. But is that enough to insure that the Windows 8 user experience is well accepted by desktop/notebook users? Hardly. There are two problems. First, while you can optimize for the 70%, 80%, 90%, or even 98% of users that may leave the other 30%, 20%, 10%, or 2% terribly dissatisfied. Not only might you lose those users, they could end up “poisoning the well” so that even users who should be thrilled by the new user experience won’t give it a chance. I know, for example, that if I tell friends and family that I don’t like Windows 8 I can cause at least a dozen people to stick with Windows 7 or abandon Windows for the Mac. And that’s not even getting into the thousands who might be influenced by my blog entries. Second, even though you create something new that you objectively know should thrill the majority of users, change is hard and those users might reject change.

The jury hasn’t even heard all the evidence on Windows 8′s new user experience yet, so figuring out if it can succeed or not is difficult. As I’ve said, I’m cautiously optimistic. But it could fall flat on its face. Over the next few weeks we’ll get our first true look at how users feel about the new user experience. I’m sure many people at Microsoft are holding their breath.

Filed under: Computer and Internet, Microsoft, Windows Tagged: Windows 8, Windows 8 Desktop, Windows 8 Metro, WIndows 8 Metro User Experience

Create UserProfiles and Properties using powershell

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:41:00 GMT

This is the boiler plate code to create user profile. This is pretty useful when you are creating bulk users for a test environment.

Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" $site = "http://myweb" $context = Get-SPServiceContext -Site $site $web = Get-SPWeb -Identity $site $group = $web.Groups["Owners"] $upm = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager -ArgumentList $context $userslist = Import-Csv -Path .\UserProfile.csv for($count=0; $count -lt $userslist.Count; $count++) {

#Create User Profile $upm.CreateUserProfile($userslist[$count].UserName) $profileproperty = $upm.GetUserProfile($userslist[$count].UserName)

#Custom User Profile being updated for the user $profileproperty["Location"].Value = $userslist[$count].Location $profileproperty["BusinessGroup"].Value = $userslist[$count].BusinessGroup $profileproperty.Commit()

#Adding users to the owner groups of the site $group.AddUser($user.UserName,"","","") $group.update() }

The script is useful to add user in bulk. It assumes that the users are already created in AD. It reads a CSV file for the users and custom properties are updated..Though user profile can be synchronized with AD

UserName | Location | BusinessGroup

How Dyson Created a Vacuum That Doesn’t Topple [VIDEO]

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:24:40 GMT

Dyson, the company that makes all those expensive and attractive vacuums and fans, has done it again. That is, it’s rolled out another vacuum cleaner you might not buy but sucks up dirt in novel ways.

The Dyson DC39, unveiled today, looks similar to the company’s previous compact cylinder vacuums, but it’s actually quite different. The DC39 reinvents the Dyson Ball design that’s in some of Dyson’s stand-up models and modifies it for the small form factor of a canister vacuum. Dyson says its engineers spent three years creating the design, a good chunk of which was spent modifying and miniaturizing components of the Ball.

The result of those labors is a cylinder vacuum that Dyson says is its most maneuverable yet. If you’ve ever had the experience of getting your vacuum cleaner caught — or worse, toppled over — because you’ve rounded a corner, the DC39 is designed to stay upright even when you get rambunctious with it.

SEE ALSO: Dyson’s New Space Heater Is Stylish, but Expensive [VIDEO]

The whole vacuum mechanism is contained in a sphere-shaped canister that measures about a foot in diameter. Inside is everything from the motor to the storage cavity for the power cable. Of course, it features Dyson’s patented suction tech that you always hear about in the commercials, which is said to move air a centrifugal force that’s 100,000 times the force of gravity.

How does Dyson build such a powerful vacuum in such a small space? Check out our in-depth look at a cutaway sample of the brand-new Dyson Ball in the gallery below.

They Dyson DC39 will go on sale in mid-March for the tidy sum of $450. There’s also a variant called the DC39 Animal that’s purple-colored, comes with an attachment for picking up cat hair and costs $500.

How do you like Dyson’s new vacuum? Is it something you’re interested in, or are you holding out for the Dyson version of the Roomba? Sound off in the comments.

Dyson DC39

The DC39 ($450) is Dyson's latest vacuum. Dyson says its engineers spent three years figuring out how to miniaturize all the components of a vacuum cleaner so they would fit in the floor vacuum version of the Dyson Ball.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: dyson, trending, vacuum

Name that Tech Tune, for a chance to win a ticket to the GeekWire Summit

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:27:33 GMT

There is almost no doubt that the song in this week’s Name that Tech Tune contest will sound familiar to you. It’s a ringtone, and you’ve probably heard it hundreds of times. But here’s the challenge: Can you identify the wireless company it’s associated with?

Send your answer to contest@geekwire.com. From the pool of correct answers, we’ll select one person to win a ticket to our upcoming GeekWire Summit, the afternoon of March 7 in downtown Seattle, featuring a lineup of great speakers and an evening party to celebrate GeekWire’s first anniversary. Here’s the sound …

If you’re stumped, we gave a clue or two during the Name that Tech Tune segment on this week’s GeekWire radio show and podcast, including the fact that there are multiple possible answers to this week’s challenge, thanks to the consolidation in the wireless industry over the years. (Our guest in the studio is wireless industry veteran Mary Jesse, founder and CEO of messaging startup Ivy Corp.)

Send your answer to contest@geekwire.com. Good luck, and we’re looking forward to seeing many of you on March 7 at the GeekWire Summit.

Name that Tech Tune is a regular feature of the GeekWire radio show and podcast, airing at 7 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday on 97.3 KIRO-FM in Seattle, and weekends on GeekWire.com.

We’ve also updated last week’s contest with the answer and the winner of the HTC Titan.

Thanks for playing, and good luck!

What it takes to leave your company after an IPO and start all over again…

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:25:00 GMT

After immigrating to the United States for school from a university campus in a town called Ludhiana, in northern India, serial entrepreneur Gaurav Dhillon found himself working for a large technology firm in Silicon Valley. Soon after, with a $75,000 grant, he started a venture in his garage and in true Silicon Valley fashion, he grew this startup into a publicly-traded company; Informatica is now valued at $5 billion.

After a successful IPO, Dhillon decided to take a short break and traveled South America and Africa extensively. When he returned to the Silicon Valley, he started SnapLogic to do to enterprise software what Apple did to the mobile phone industry, by having third party developers design programs that “snap” different applications together; other end-users can purchase these snaps in the SnapStore or — alternatively — build proprietary connections to their internal systems to improve their data processing capabilities.

Through the app store business model, Gaurav has positioned SnapLogic as “the Switzerland of data” – allowing disparate applications to communicate smoothly in a simplified, modern, and uniform manner. So what does it take to leave your company after a 5 billion dollar IPO and start all over again? Well, first I asked him, what inspired him to leave his country and attend school in the United States.

“I read a special issue of the Scientific American devoted to software, and it had a profound influence on me,” Dhillon says. “I’d always loved building things as a kid and had already been playing around with computer kits like the Sinclair Spectrum [an early microcomputer]. I was riveted by articles from the greats like Alan Kay, the inventor of Smalltalk.”

This was one of the many influences that led Dhillon to pursue graduate school for computer science in the United States. After two years of graduate work, he landed a summer internship at Unisys, which at the time was the second-largest computer company in the world. He quickly realized he was learning and doing much more exciting work there than in university so he decided to stay.

In 1992, he received a $75,000 small business grant from the US government. When looking back at what he learned while bootstrapping Informatica from his garage, he says, “The most important lesson I learned was that it’s all about the people– they matter more than the technology itself. Of course the technology has to be great, and we had great minds working on it. But I believe the culture we instilled was ultimately the biggest key to our success.”

Dhillon says he hired people who were not only highly skilled, but also had an intense desire to make a difference in their field. “On top of that, the team worked incredibly well together because there was a high degree of loyalty amongst us, and we interacted with each other and with the world with a strong sense of decency and fair play.”

While bootstrapping Informatica in the early 90s, Dhillon experienced what he calls an inevitable, very large move away from mainframes towards PCs and distributed client server systems. “Another lesson is that taking the time to think about the big picture is very, very important….Informatica was a multi-decade bet on getting companies off of mainframes and into client-server software, and now we can certainly say it has come true in spades…. We caught that wave because we believed this shift would happen, even though most people thought mainframes would always be synonymous with ‘enterprise’. If we had done Informatica five years before or five years later, it would have been too early or too late,” he says.

“Ultimately, we had the benefit of a longstanding conviction about where the industry would go—even during the most challenging stretches any company could face. Through it all, we worked hard, kept our sense of humor and brought a healthy dose of grit and determination to work every day.”

In April, 1999, Informatica went public on the NASDAQ but after a decade of working around the clock, Dhillon decided it was time to move on and build something again. But first, he needed some time off. “I had always been envious of friends who had the luxury of taking the proverbial year off after college and traveling around the world, so I finally took the opportunity to do just that,” he says. “I love exploring, so spent a lot of time in Latin America learning Spanish and in Africa stalking wildlife with a camera. I did a lot of thinking about the future along the way. When I returned, I got married to an amazing woman and we now have a wonderful daughter.”

He returned to Silicon Valley, which “was infectious as usual,” he says. “My inspiration for SnapLogic came in 2006 when the Internet was beginning to change the business world the way it had changed the consumer world. I believed people would be building and using websites to run various parts of their business instead of using traditional enterprise applications. Light, nimble apps rather than cumbersome, complex client-server software.”

So Dhillon bet on a shift towards an Internet style of computing in the enterprise (a.k.a “the cloud”). In the same way Dhillon watched the transition away from mainframe computing, he now believes the enterprise software industry is going through a similar rebirth and is betting SnapLogic will be the conduit to help enterprises make that shift to the cloud.

Aside from Informatica, the other key players in the data integration industry include Tibco, IBM and Oracle, as well as smaller, midmarket companies focused on cloud integration like Boomi and Cast Iron, who Dhillon tells me are incidentally now part of Dell and IBM, respectively. Dhillon explains that his new startup, SnapLogic is where the Venn diagram of enterprise data integration and cloud integration intersect.

“As the only truly enterprise-class integration company formed after the advent of the Internet, and more importantly during the rise of the cloud, SnapLogic is where the future of integration is headed,” he says.

So what does SnapLogic do? SnapLogic integrates yesterday’s on-premise systems with today’s cloud solutions and also connects the different cloud services to each other. “We face pretty typical startup challenges,” says Dhillon. “Once you get the product line rolling and have some great customer references, then driving growth becomes your next big challenge. Managing growth is harder in a startup because you don’t have a broad array of resources. You have to make thoughtful bets on everything.”

Dhillon says his day is consumed with questions like, “What’s the right economic model? What’s the right product definition? How do we line up product architecture and product pricing? What is the best distribution system?” But looking back to his experience with Informatica, Dhillon says the people factor is of utmost importance. “We’re always working to ensure that we have the right people with the right values in every important function as we grow.”

When asked what he will do next, Dhillon says he still has a decade or so to go before he’ll figure that out. He says, “I think we really have our teeth in this opportunity with SnapLogic, and I’m very excited about the successes we’ve had with terrific customers like Pandora, Fusion-io, Ubuntu, Outback Steakhouse and Fox News. In 2012 I expect to see an acceleration of the trends we’ve talked about today, and I look forward to helping enterprises everywhere to get rid of data and process silos by connecting them using cloud integration.”

Vitalii Nesterchuk and meunierd via shutterstock