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Android.com update introduces Ice Cream Sandwich on phones and tablets

2011-11-18T01:37:00Z

With the Galaxy Nexus reaching customer's hands today and bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich along with it, the official site has been updated with the usual lists of features and brief walkthroughs. Whether you need yet another breakdown of what the new version of the OS brings to the table is debatable, but there are a few fresh renders of the tabletized version of Ice Cream Sandwich included, as seen above. A quick look sees the new Roboto font displaying the time, and revised button scheme at the lower left. Click the source link and dive into the site for yourself for a few more pics.

Android.com update introduces Ice Cream Sandwich on phones and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Android.com | Email this | Comments

Nokia to release Windows 8 tablets this June, top drawer Lumia in the works?

2011-11-16T07:31:00Z

There's some intriguing Nokia news coming out of France this morning, thanks to Paul Amsellem, head of the company's Gallic outpost. In a recent interview with Parisian daily Les Echos, Amsellem described Nokia's aspirations to regain some of the market share it's lost within France, explaining that his firm is squarely targeting the 60 percent of French users who currently don't own a smartphone. More salient, however, is what the exec had to say about Nokia's plans for future releases. According to Amsellem, Espoo will unveil a new Windows 8 equipped tablet by June 2012. Unfortunately, that's about all he had to say on the subject, but it's certainly enough of a carrot to raise our heart rates -- as are Amsellem's comments on the Lumia 800, which hit French stores yesterday. Comparing the handset to a BMW 5 series, the chief went on to say that Nokia "will soon have a full range with a 7 Series and 3 Series." He didn't elaborate much on this analogy, though its implication is rather self-evident -- new Lumia cousins may be in the works. Of course, it remains to be seen when and if the company will expand upon its Lumia line, though we'll definitely be keeping our yeux on it.

Nokia to release Windows 8 tablets this June, top drawer Lumia in the works? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink WMPoweruser | Les Echos (French) | Email this | Comments

Kindle Fire an iPad killer? Yes. It's the price, stupid

2011-09-28T17:23:56Z

commentary The Kindle Fire is smaller than the iPad and has half the features. CNET's Molly Wood argues that it doesn't need the other half, because it's less than half the price.

What cleantech should know about chasm crossing

2011-07-25T16:36:36Z

If there’s really a significant gulf, as onetime marketer Geoffrey Moore put it, between selling to early adopters and the majority of technology buyers, what does this mean for companies in cleantech? The chasm model holds that there’s a big difference between what companies need to do to effectively sell technology products to early adopters [...]

Google Docs Adds Support for Pivot Tables

2011-05-18T00:00:00Z

Today Google announced support for pivot tables to the Google Docs spreadsheet application. According to Wikipedia, pivot tables "can automatically sort, count, total or give the average of the data stored in one table or spreadsheet. It displays the results in a second table (called a "pivot table") showing the summarized data." It's a common approach to data visualization and business intelligence.

Unfortunately, pivot tables from Microsoft Excel can't be imported into Google Docs yet.

Sponsor

This new functionality takes Google Docs one step closer to being useful for serious data analysis.

Discuss

AMD Finally Enters Tablet Market With New Chip

2011-06-01T06:20:35Z

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday broke its silence around its tablet strategy, announcing its first low-power chip designed for these devices.

Google Offers to launch tomorrow in Portland, Ore.

2011-06-01T04:45:38Z

Eric Schmidt demonstrates the Web giant's new daily deals service on stage during the D9 conference.

8 Brands That Have Found Success on Facebook & What We Can Learn

2011-05-24T22:08:18Z

Dave Kerpen is the CEO of Likeable, a social media agency that has worked with more than 200 leading brands including 1-800Flowers.com, Verizon and Neutrogena. He is author of Likeable Social Media.

Any brand worth their social media salt has a presence on Facebook. But just because a brand is online, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is doing a good job.

While it’s possible to suggest some tips and best practices, there’s no greater teacher than learning from example.

Below, find eight brands that have found success on Facebook, including some takeaways on what they did right and how you can emulate their success.

1. The Pampered Chef

The Pampered Chef launched their Facebook page at a national conference in front of thousands of enthusiastic consultants. The page earned 10,000 likes in its first 24 hours and now has over 260,000 likes.

Lesson: Ask your staff, customers, vendors, and partners — who already know you and like you — to “Like” your Facebook page first.

2. Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com combines exclusive Facebook offers with lots of engaging questions. This drives higher results in users’ newsfeeds because of Facebook’s EdgeRank formula. Last week for instance, they asked, “When the weather is nice, do you prefer to dine on the restaurant’s outdoor patio or stay indoors?” and “Which American Idol finalist would you like to dine with — Haley, Lauren, or Scotty?”

Lesson: Ask a lot of questions. You’ll get valuable feedback, plus you’ll be more likely to appear in your fans’ newsfeeds.

3. Oreo

Oreo is a global brand with over 19 million fans, and yet they still manage to make things personal for their fans. They consistently run fun content, creative pictures and links. They also have a “World’s Fan of the Week” that showcases one Oreo fan in their profile picture based on uploaded fan photos.

Lesson: Share lots of photos, and ask your fans to share photos. Facebook’s Photos remain the most viral feature of its platform.

4. Vitamin Water

Vitamin Water has been trailblazing on Facebook for years, including crowdsourcing an entirely new flavor back in 2009. Today, they have over 2.3 million fans with frequent posts featuring pictures, videos, events and links. Most importantly, they are responsive to fan questions and inquiries, breeding loyalty even when their answers aren’t exactly what customers want to hear.

Lesson: Find the resources to respond to your fans questions and inquiries.

5. Boloco

Boloco is a Boston restaurant which has set up their Fan Page as a “Place” Page, allowing people to check-in. In addition to using the Reviews app to solicit and showcase reviews, Boloco is engaging and has fun with their audience. Most importantly, as a Place Page, they can leverage one of Facebook’s newest features, Deals, offering customers specific and local specials.

Lesson: If you have a physical location, use Place Pages and Deals to drive traffic through your doors.

6. LOFT

Last June, LOFT upset its fans after they posted a series of photos of super-thin models wearing their clothing. So the very next day, they apologized and shared photos of their own staff, of various shapes and sizes, wearing the line. Fans responded enthusiastically, and since then LOFT’s Fan Page has grown from 50,000 fans to 250,000 fans. They also post a lot on weekends, when their audience is online and there’s less competition from other brands.

Lesson: Know your audience well, and when you make a mistake, quickly own up, do right by your audience and fix the problem.

7. 1-800-Flowers.com

1-800-Flowers.com was one of the first brands to establish buying opportunities inside Facebook, and now leverages in-stream sales. But the most important thing they’ve done is to deeply integrate Facebook onto their website, putting the Like button on all products. Imagine visiting an ecommerce website and seeing what products the person you’re buying a gift for “Liked” — it would make choosing the right gift a lot easier, wouldn’t it?

Lesson: Integrate Facebook outside of your Fan Page, on your website, in as many places as you can. Create more compelling opportunities for people to buy your product based on their friends’ Likes.

8. Brooklyn Museum

This local non-profit has used pictures and an art app called Wall Paper to attract more than 37,000 fans. One thing they do particularly well is engage other entities. A look at their Wall shows lots of artist pages and other organization’s pages interacting with the Museum’s page — not just the fans.

Lesson: Find synergy with other organizations and entities, and then work together to promote each other’s Facebook pages so that everyone benefits.

These eight brands all demonstrate worthwhile lessons in Facebook marketing. What are your favorite brands doing on Facebook? And what other lessons have you learned? Let us know in the comments below.

Disclosure: The Pampered Chef, Restaurant.com and 1-800-Flowers.com are clients of Likeable.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Vitó

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Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video)

2011-05-23T11:51:00Z

Pen pushers who took a chance on Livescribe's note-recording smartpen have benefited from some nice apps, hacks and upgrades along the way. Now the company's latest productivity-booster is a software update called Connect, which lets you share your scribbles via Email, Google Docs, Facebook and Evernote, as well as through Livescribe's own Pencast platform. Some of these sharing options were already available but Connect tries to speed things in an interesting way: by letting you set sharing instructions even as you jot down a note. Simply draw a double line and write, say, 'Facebook' or 'Google Docs' somewhere on the page, and the sharing will take place automatically the next time you sync to your Mac or PC. Most of the sharing options are free, but if you own an older Pulse model or the new entry-level $99.95 2GB Echo you'll need to buy a $15 upgrade before you can share via Email or Google Docs. Heck, we'd pay way more than that if only Livescribe would come up with a way to sync and share wirelessly -- docking this thing feels about as cutting edge as a quill. Video and full PR after the break.

Continue reading Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video)

Livescribe Connect upgrade lets you share doodles in several ways, just not wirelessly (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AllThingsD | Livescribe | Email this | Comments

Netflix, Miramax Reach Movie Streaming Deal

2011-05-16T16:01:51Z

Netflix and Miramax have finalized a multi-year deal that will make hundreds of Miramax movies available for streaming online via Netflix.

The deal, thought to be worth more than $100 million, is Miramax's first digital deal since being sold by Disney for $660 million. It is not exclusive to Netflix.

"From day one, we’ve been very clear about the importance of digital and our desire to respond to the significant pent-up demand for our films -- delivering to consumers whenever and wherever they want," Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax said in a statement. "This agreement is an important first step in our digital strategy. Netflix has always been a trailblazer, with a tremendous track record of innovation and quality customer service. We’re thrilled to now be in business with them as we build and revitalize the proud Miramax brand."

The deal will bring movies like Kill Bill, Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and Good Will Hunting to Netflix starting in June. Movies can be viewed on different platforms, including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

McDonald's To Look Like Starbucks

2011-05-09T18:36:35Z

McDonald's is taking a cue from Starbucks and upgrading the look and feel of its stores, reports USA Today. The fast food giant has invested over $1 billion in remodeling its 14,000 U.S. franchises and hopes to have most of the facelifts complete by 2015.

Jim Carras, senior vice president of domestic restaurant development for McDonald's explains that it is important to change with the times and to do so faster than ever. Not only is the chain hoping to edge out rivals like Burger King and Wendy's but McDonald's also hopes to give Panera and Chipotle a run for their money as well.

Simply put, "nicer-looking stores attract more business," as is proven by McDonald's newly redesigned Tampa branch, which has seen a double-digit sales boost in the past year. McDonald's sought inspiration from its outposts in France and Australia, which already have a sleeker, more modern feel. Additional inspiration has also come from the uber-sleek Apple stores.

The "McRemodel" laundry list of changes includes:

nixing the red roofs

a focus on earth tones rather than red and yellow

no more fiberglass, no more steel chairs

more drive-through windows

getting rid of fluorescent lights

adding flat-screen TVs

This isn't McDonald's first redesign effort, (see here and here) but the Tampa model is serving as a standard for what 800 other franchises will look like by the end of the year.

With free Wi-Fi and increasingly popular coffee at McDonald's, Starbucks might be the one playing catch up before you know it. Which makes us hope, maybe a menu makeover could come next?

___

McDonald's also posted April sales on Monday, exceeding Wall Street's expectations with a six per cent rise in revenue at stores open at least 13 months.

Tuitionless Ivy League Education - Open Culture Brings Classes to Your Desktop for Free (TrendHunter.com)

2011-05-12T07:56:02Z

(TrendHunter.com) Open Culture is an innovative education model that brings classes from the top international schools to your computer for free. The Open Culture platform brings together classes from Berkeley- and Harvard-caliber...

Apple Sues Samsung Over Similarities in Mobile Products

2011-04-18T23:37:00Z

Apple's federal court suit claims the Galaxy line of phones and tablets borrows too much from Apple products.

Report: Wi-Fi 30 percent slower than wired

2011-03-11T06:30:47Z

Shared by Gaurav
Wi-Fi 30 percent slower than wired

Wi-Fi speeds in the home are about 30 percent slower than their wired equivalents, according to a new study from broadband research company Epitiro.

[extracted from Report: Wi-Fi 30 percent slower than wired via feedly]

You've Got Arianna: AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million ... (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

2011-02-07T05:05:04Z

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
You've Got Arianna: AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million in Cash and Stock, Appoints Huffington Editor in Chief — In a bold and definitive move, AOL is paying $315 million, mostly in cash, to buy the Huffington Post, one of the Web's most prominent news and opinion sites.

Google Gets 75,000 Job Applications in One Week, Topping Record Set in '07 (Brian Womack/Bloomberg)

2011-02-04T02:35:00Z

Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Google Gets 75,000 Job Applications in One Week, Topping Record Set in '07 — Google Inc., the world's biggest Internet-search service, received more than 75,000 job applications worldwide last week, setting a record for the company as it embarks on a hiring spree.

@KennethCole Sets New Bar For Social Media Stupidity [Update: And Removes Tweet]

2011-02-03T20:23:26Z

“We had hoped this ad would change the world but we blue it.”

- Kenneth Cole

Finally someone sees the unrest in Egypt for the marketing opportunity it truly is! I’ve now spent a couple hours reeling from how insensitive it was for designer Kenneth Cole to use #Cairo to publicize the availability of his spring collection online when Egypt is erupting in violence and millions were cut off from Internet communication for days.

My first thought here was, uh oh, some PR person is getting fired for this, the most egregious case of hashtag surfing fail I’ve ever seen. But apparently the tweet came from Cole himself, signed “-KC.”

Married to former NY Governor Mario Cuomo’s daughter Maria, Kenneth Cole feels entitled to publish consistently superfical ads that dabble in politics, most notably one that equated abortion to purses, “Dear pro-life advocates, Isn’t it a woman’s right to choose? After all, she’s the one carrying it.”

Econsultancy points out that furniture maker Habitat pulled a similar move when it hopped on the hashtags #Iran and #Mousavi in order to blatantly advertise its website during the Iran election protests. It ended up firing the intern responsible and deleting the account.

What did Kenneth Cole do? He sent out this pithy apology tweet.

@KennethCole
Kenneth Cole

Re Egypt tweet: we weren't intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KC

February 3, 2011 8:51 am via Twitter for BlackBerry®RetweetReply

“We weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation.” Bullshit. Yes, yes you were. That’s exactly what you were doing. As of yet the media fiasco, estimated 1500 negative retweets an hour and an @KennethColePR spoof account haven’t affected the company’s stock price. But trust me they will. They will.

Update: Kenneth Cole has deleted the original tweet, offering this apology on his Facebook page, in essence admitting that maybe it was too soon for Egypt jokes.

“I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.”

@KennethColePR

Rolling through Germany? Gestapo by our new Berlin store! #KennethColeTweets

about 20 hours ago via webRetweetReply

@arrington
Michael Arrington

@KennethCole I look forward to slavery and holocaust jokes next.

about 21 hours ago via webRetweetReply

@hblodget
Henry Blodget

Hey, @kennethcole, who's the idiot who sent this tweet? Has he/she been fired yet? http://read.bi/hdMVmj

about 23 hours ago via TweetDeckRetweetReply

@alexia
Alexia Tsotsis

Okay Internet, who do we hate more, Kenneth Cole or Mubarak?

about 20 hours ago via Twitter for MacRetweetReply

@NathanWurtzel
Nathan Wurtzel

Hey, if you're planning a murder spree, look good doing so in @KennethCole's new spring collection!

about 20 hours ago via TweetDeckRetweetReply

@gaberivera
Gabe Rivera

Sadly, outrage over @KennethCole is mostly played out. Any other angles to take? E.g. http://read.bi/fwuxAI Or maybe: Anti-outrage backlash?

about 20 hours ago via webRetweetReply

@thatdrew
drew olanoff

how to damage a brand: http://twitter.com/#!/KennethCole/status/33177584262971393

about 22 hours ago via webRetweetReply

@christinelu
Christine Lu

…looks like sh*t just hit the social media fan for Kenneth Cole today.

about 20 hours ago via EchofonRetweetReply

@jspepper
Jeremy Pepper

@gaberivera Can my outrage be that KC has a history of such stunts and it's their strategy for press. Must be the clothes/shoes suck.

about 20 hours ago via webRetweetReply

@KennethColePR

Our Tucson store is locked and loaded with Spring looks! #KennethColeTweets

about 21 hours ago via webRetweetReply

Dell Launches Venue and Venue Pro in India More Android and WP7 Goodies

2011-02-03T18:36:11Z

Filed under: News : Smart

Dells smartphones have finally launched in India, running Android and WP7 respectively. Read more

Google's paying $20,000 to hack Chrome -- any takers?

2011-02-04T00:33:00Z

So far, Chrome is the only browser of the big four -- Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer being the other three -- to escape the Pwn2Own hacking competition unscathed the past two years. (Sorry Opera aficionados, looks like there's not enough of you to merit a place in the contest... yet.) Evidently, its past success has Google confident enough to pony up a cool $20,000 and a CR-48 laptop to anyone able to find a bug in its code and execute a clean sandbox escape on day one of Pwn2Own 2011. Should that prove too daunting a task, contest organizer TippingPoint will match El Goog's $10,000 prize (still $20,000 total) for anyone who can exploit Chrome and exit the sandbox through non-Google code on days two and three of the event. For those interested in competing, Pwn2Own takes place March 9th through 11th in Vancouver at the CanSecWest conference. The gauntlet has been thrown -- your move, hackers.

Google's paying $20,000 to hack Chrome -- any takers? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ComputerWorld | TippingPoint | Email this | Comments

Flickr Accidentally Wipes Out Account: Five Years And 4,000 Photos Down The Drain

2011-02-02T10:56:39Z

Yahoo’s Flickr may have another PR nightmare on their hands. IT architect and Flickr user Mirco Wilhelm couldn’t log on to his 5-year old account yesterday, and when he asked the Flickr team about this issue they flat out told him they had accidentally flushed his entire account, and the 4,000 photos that were in it, straight down the drain.

Apparently Wilhelm reported a Flickr user with an account that held ‘obviously stolen material’ to the company last weekend, but a staff member erroneously incinerated his account instead of the culprit’s.

Hello,

Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error and hope that this mistake can be reconciled. Here is what I can do from here:

I can restore your account, although we will not be able to retrieve your photos. I know that there is a lot of history on your account–again, please accept my apology for my negligence. Once I restore your account, I will add four years of free Pro to make up for my error.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.
Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake.

Regards,

Flickr staff

Ouch.

What amazes me most about this story is how calmly Wilhelm reacts to the termination of his account:

It is kind of nice, getting an additional 4 years of service subscription for free… but I already received free Pro subscriptions for the next year just by taking part in some events and competitions.

So how can this really compensate losing close to 4000 “linked” pictures from my web albums? I have to recreate most of these links manually, which will take weeks, if not months of my free time! Not to mention, external websites that had linked these images (including some official Yahoo! and Flickr blogs).

…

Since Flickr had deleted the account an all the related object, they cannot reactivate anything more that the account itself, leaving me with an empty shell of what I did during the last 5 years. This would be acceptable, if I had a free account. But since I’m a paying customer, I would expect a bit more that a “Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake.”

I expect at least a process that can undo this kind of mistakes. For any other kind of compensation, I will take some time to consult.

I’ve never been a big Flickr user, but I had always assumed a simple click of the button couldn’t delete an account and its content altogether, rather than simply deactivate it.

It never occurred to me that a team member could just wipe out accounts without the means to reactivate them if it turned out to be a mistake.

And what about backups for Christ’s sake?

For what it’s worth, Flickr’s Zack Sheppard commented in the Flickr forum thusly:

We’ve been working on the ability to restore accounts for a while and hope to have it completed early this year.

We have been in contact with Mirco and may be able to restore his account. The partial work that has been done so far may make it possible to retrieve the account. It’s only a maybe but we want to try and do everything we can to rectify this mistake.

Just as people have stated above, we also believe this is an important feature to have in place for cases like this when there was an error. As many of you know we usually do not discuss features before they are released but because of the community concern we wanted to let you know in this case.

So basically there hasn’t been a way for Flickr to restore accidentally removed paid accounts since the company was founded, maybe they can do something about Mirco’s account (you have to wonder what would have happened hadn’t he raised a big stink about this in the first place) and users should be so lucky that Flickr is letting them know they might be able to restore erroneously terminated accounts at some point in the future.

Duly noted.

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