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What the heck is a Chumby8, anyway? Depending on how you’d like to use it, at $199, it’s either the most sophisticated alarm clock in the world, or it’s a clunky, anachronistic distant relative of the iPad with a non-removable kickstand in the back.
Like its older brethren, the Chumby Classic and Chumby One, Chumby8 wirelessly connects to your Wi-Fi network, and then lets you use one of its 1500+ apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Pandora. By far, its strongest capabilities are its alarm clock features, able to launch apps or wake you up to music or anything else, whenever you schedule them.
I’ve been a Chumby user for a couple of years now, so I’ve grown accustomed to its idiosyncrasies. Why did I call it a clunky distant relative of the iPad? Because if you compare its screen with that of the iPad, this one feels like a throwback to the ’90s. It doesn’t use the easy capacitive touchscreen of most of today’s tablets that requires just the lightest of touches. Instead, it has an old-fashioned resistive touchscreen that’s a lot less sensitive, making you push harder or even use a fingernail to assure that it works. It takes some getting used to.
Chumby8′s 8-inch 800×600 LCD touchscreen has narrow viewing angles, so unless you’re sitting right in front of it, it looks dimmer as you move to the side, or above or below it. Even though it looks fairly sharp and bright, it’s just not a very good screen. For a device that costs $200, you’d expect its screen to be better than this.
It has a 800MHz Marvell Armada 166 processor whose clock rate is almost twice as fast as the Chumby One (compare the Chumby One and Chumby8 here), giving it snappy performance when launching apps. But its comparatively sluggish graphics performance still won’t allow it to smoothly dissolve from one picture to the next — it’s capable of about 10 frames per second, making it a mediocre digital picture frame.
That harsh criticism aside, I love the Chumby, and this one improves upon the virtues of its groundbreaking predecessors. It’s great to be able to insert a CompactFlash, MMC or SD card into it, and then it will either play your music or photos from there, or let you load them onto its 2GB internal flash drive. You can even upload pics to photo sharing sites from it. There are also a couple of USB ports into which you can plug an Ethernet adapter and extra storage. And if you’re a hacker, look at all the crazy things you can do with this Chumby8.
I especially like the new design. Take a look at the gallery below, and you’ll see that this is one solidly-built unit, its rubberized finish is available in either red or black. It has a couple of speakers hidden inside, giving you decent sound, albeit without enough bass to take them seriously. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack in the back where you can plug in external speakers, resulting in the most sophisticated clock radio in the world, able to pick up more than 10,000 Internet radio and podcast stations.
If you’re looking for a Pandora alarm clock with a relatively giant screen and all kinds of versatility, this might be the one for you. Like its predecessors, Chumby8 has multiple scheduling capabilities, letting you turn on music or any of its apps at predesignated times. You can program it to go into Night Mode at bedtime, showing the time but at a dimness that’s dark enough for even the most light-sensitive whiners to get to sleep. Then, you can program it to wake you to your favorite Internet radio station while displaying your Twitter feed.
There’s an welcome new capability that was sorely missing in the first two Chumbys: It lets you tap links within apps, and then it will open up a Webkit browser that has fairly snappy performance, well, except for that awkward touchscreen navigation. Even so, this is a big improvement, giving you the ability to actually use Twitter and Facebook, tapping on links and reading them in a browser.
By far, the strength of Chumby 8 is its huge library of apps (different from Android or iPhone apps, and able to run Flash), including some of the most creative, clever clocks I’ve ever seen. In fact, if you want to use this as an extravagant alarm clock, it nails it. If you’re thinking this will be a good digital photo frame, it’s barely passable, but as a less-than-half-priced iPad substitute, it’s not, nor was it meant to be.
Chumby8 is good for doing things such as watching a few YouTube videos before you go to bed, that is, if you don’t have another device that can do a better job. That’s the rub with Chumby: What is it for? People who want to use its myriad functions probably already have a device that can do all of them better. But this one does all of its tricks with an even a bigger screen than its predecessor, so if your needs fit within its narrow niche, and you have an extra $199 to blow, Chumby8′s a lot of fun.
Set up your apps, grouped in channels, on the Chumby website. Then they show up here. Unlike previous models, you can arrange, add and delete apps on the device, too.
You can keep playing music from these apps while you view others.
Tap the crescent moon icon, and Chumby8 goes into Night Mode, which shows just a stock clock, dimmed down. Great for those who need near-total darkness to sleep.
It works almost automatically, but lets you get into manual settings.
I have Night Mode dimmed down as much as possible here.
Schedule almost anything Chumby8 can do as a task or alarm.
Plug in a flash memory card, it shows up here
Choose which pics will display here.
More About: Chumby8, First Look, hands-on, Networked App Player, pandora, reviews
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As well as offering an unusual and stylish stand solution, these “passive amplifiers” will boost your iPhone’s audio output by around 10 decibels — not exactly room filling sound, but not bad for a planet-hugging, power-free solution.
If you think you could use some of that acoustic goodness in your iLife, then take a look through our gallery of the five best solutions available. Let us know which one blows your trumpet in the comments below.
While it might look like something Shrek would attach to his iPhone, this funky, colorful horn attachment will give you around 13 extra decibels and can be used in both landscape and portrait mode.
Cost: $24.95
The glorious Phonofone III is as much sexy ceramic sculpture as it is passive amplifer.
Cost: $195 (CAD)
Griffin's affordable solution uses a built-in coiled waveguide to up your iPhone's audio levels. Its transparent design lets you "see" it work.
Cost: $19.99
Described as the "natural alternative" to your plastic-y speaker docks, each koostik is hand-made from a solid block of wood, with various natural finishes available.
Cost: From $85
Tembo Trunks amplify the sound from your iPhone's earphones. Especially suited to travelers, they are stackable, collapsible and virtually indestructible.
Cost: From $39
More About: accessories, gallery, iphone, iphone accessories, iphone speakers, List, Lists, speakers
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Building on the highly successful campaign from Toy Story 3, the marketers at Disney Pixar have crafted this hilarious and well-produced faux used car advertisement in honor of Cars 2.
Cars 2 hits theaters on June 24, 2011, which means this is the perfect time to crank up the marketing buzz. The new faux spot debuted at the WonderCon comic, sci-fi and movie convention this weekend, via the Twitter handle @ChromeLeaks. A car featuring the Twitter name was on display at the convention, too. Users who visit the URL cars-n-deals.com are treated to the faux advertisement above.
The spot, which was directed by Chris Cantwell (the same guy who directed those amazing Toy Story 3 ads), is for Cars N’ Deals of Emeryville. The spot features subtle hints about the upcoming Cars 2 and even has a working phone number.
Hidden within the ad is a URL for an exclusive clip of Cars 2. We won’t spoil the surprise by posting the link, but viewers might want to hit the pause button on YouTube at the 57-second mark.
As with the Lots-o-Huggin’Bear ads, the Cars N’ Deals spot will probably make more sense within the context of the full film itself. We can’t wait.
More About: cars 2, chris cantwell, disney, Film, Movies, pixar, toys story 3, viral video
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YouTube‘s online Editor launched in June last year as a very basic video editing suite originally borne from one of Google‘s “20%” projects. Now it has seven full-time developers working on it and new features are gradually being introduced.
Mashable spoke to Tom Bridgwater, a YouTube software engineer and one of the founding members of the team that developed Editor, about how to get the most from the free video editing software.
If you’d like to know how to trim your videos, improve the image quality and add free music, then take a look through the gallery of short video demos below. Let us know your favorite YouTube Editor function — and what else you’d like to see in the future — in the comments below.
The YouTube Editor is comprised of three areas -- the media picker window on the top left, the preview video window on the top right and the "storyboard" across the bottom of the screen.
"We choose to go with the storyboard metaphor because we felt it was easier in concept," explains Bridgwater. "It's like a storyboard where you just take Post-It notes and stick them on the wall in the order in which you want things to happen.
"As opposed to having to fiddle around with dragging times and getting everything lined up perfectly -- it's more just 'this is the sequence of videos' and that's what you're focussed on."
To open the YouTube Editor once you're signed in, click on your username in the top right of the screen, select "Account" or "My Videos" then hit the "YouTube Editor" tab.
Adding clips to the storyboard is super simple. Just drag them into the storyboard window, or click the plus sign on the video you want to add. Once the clips are in you can drag and drop to re-order them, or remove them from the storyboard either by dragging them back up to the media picker window or clicking the "x" in the top right corner.
Bridgwater has a tip for anyone who wants to use several parts of the same clip in your finished video. "You can use one video multiple times by just putting it into the storyboard multiple times." So if you want to repeat a clip, or use the beginning and end of a clip at different times in your final video, just add it to the storyboard as many times as you want to use it.
If you need to rotate a clip, simply hover over it in the storyboard window and hit the arrow icon. You can now rotate it 90-degrees left or right until it's at the correct orientation. When it is, hit save.
"This was a huge thing when we added it because we have a lot of users who upload from their mobile phones," says Bridgwater.
"Certain phones are able to send orientation information, other phones aren't. It's not very standardized how phones communicate the orientation of a video. In the upload priocess we try, if the phone gives us that information, to rotate it, but it's often not done. So this gives users the opportunity to rotate a video back to the correct orientation after they've uploaded it."
You can trim the beginning and end of clips in Editor. Hover over the clip you want to trim and select the scissors. You can now drag the handles along the frame strip to cut unwanted footage. As you drag the handles, the player above seeks to where you're dragging to, but you can get even more precise, as Bridgwater explains:
"Say someone walks into a room and you want to start the clip at the moment they enter. You can step through frame by frame by using the little left and right arrows at the top of those drag handles. This means you can 'nudge' the start point and the end point on a frame-accurate basis."
"Brightness and contrast are just pretty much like an old TV set where you have the two knobs," states Bridgwater. "And black and white just makes the video a black and white video."
Simple enough, but the near-live preview is pretty handy. "Our mantra for the video editor is that the preview has to be 'what you see is what you get'" says Bridgwater. "We show you a lower resolution version of the video that you're putting together with all the effects. You don't have to wait more than a couple of seconds, no matter what you do."
To access these controls, hover over the clip you want to adjust, select the wand icon and then you can play around with the settings to get the best result for you. Checking the "Preview effects side by side with original video" will allow you to do just that.
The stabilization functionality is new to Editor, and it's something that YouTube is pretty proud of. Perfect for stopping citizen journalism-style clips from being too bumpy, the tool can also be used on any clip shot on a handheld device that could use some stabilization. You can try the effects out in Editor with near real-time previews, as Bridgwater explains:
"Editor can actually do a preview of a stabilized clip in real time. This is in contrast to a lot of desktop video editing software where you click the 'stabilize this video button,' go and get a cup of coffee and wait for it to do its work."
To try out the functionality you need to hover over the clip you want to edit, hit the wand icon and then check the box next to the stabalize options. It works on a sliding scale, which Bridgwater elaborates on:
"If you are on the left end, the less stable end of the slider, your video will be slightly more shaky but the advantage is that you lose less of the video. The way any stablization works, no matter what algorithm you're using, is by cropping the video a slight amount. In our case, at the less stable end we crop 3% of the video and on the far right end we crop 30%."
So how does the algorithm work? "Video that is shot professionally and made to be stable typically uses dollies and tripods, so the camera itself remains stable. What this algorithm does is tries to recreate what the camera motion should have been if you were using one of those tools, a dolly or a tripod."
Editor gives you the option to add transitions to your clips, at the beginning and end of your video, and in between the clips themselves. The transitions last for two seconds. Clips adjacent to a transition must be at least two seconds long. If there is a transition on both sides of a clip, then that clip must be at least four seconds long to accommodate both transitions.
To add a transition to your video, go to the media picker window and click on the bow tie icon. You can now drag and drop your selected transition into your storyboard.
One thing to note about transitions," says Bridgwater. "As you drag and drop the transition it'll give you some feedback about exactly where it will land. The feedback, the blue highlight, will straddle clips and transitions to show you where the thing you're dragging will land."
More transition tips from Bridgwater include: "If you put a transition at the very beginning, before the first clip, or at the very end, after the last clip, it's going to transition from or to black. If there's a transiton between videos the audio between those two clips will [also] similtaneously cross fade between the two videos while the transition is occuring."
"You can replace the audio in your own video with a track from our library of free songs," says Bridgwater. To find a song, go to the media picker window and hit the musical note icon. There are around 50,000 songs for you to choose from. You can search via genre, artist or keyword. To preview a song simply hover over it and hit the play arrow. To add it to your storyboard hit the plus symbol.
Once you've added a song to your storyboard you can manage it by scrolling down to the bottom of the page where your choice is displayed. To remove it entirely simply hit the "x" or to adjust the levels, here's Bridgwater's explanation of the functionality.
"If you put an audio track in the storyboard it will replace the entirity of the audio for your edited video, but you can choose how it's mixed."
"If the slider is all the way to the left -- set to 'only music' -- it's the same result as you get using the regular 'AudioSwap' feature on YouTube. If the slider is all the way on the right you might as well have not added to the track because it won't be heard over the clip's audio.
With Editor you're able to do a mix anywhere in between. Dead center is an even mix betwen the original audio from the video clip and the music track that you've selected, so you can choose the balance."
Once you've edited your clips and added any music or transitions you want, you can preview the finished product simply by hitting the play button on the preview window on the top right of the screen.
When you're happy with everything, you'll need to give your video a title. To do this just type in the text box on the top right of the screen. Then you can hit the publish button to send your video live.
If you hit publish without giving your video a name then YouTube will give it a default title comprised of the date and time. You can still edit this after you've published it. Simply load up the video and hit the "Edit video detail" button that's just beneath the YouTube logo on the top left of your screen.
More About: how to, howto's, online video editing, video editing, youtube
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It’s not going to be easy — you have competition. Facebook received 250,000 job applications last year and is consistently rated as one of the best places to work. And with Facebook’s IPO around the corner, the competition for jobs is only going to heat up.
There are plenty of ways to get noticed and stand above the crowd, though. I chatted with Thomas Arnold, head of recruiting for the social network, on what the company looks for and what it takes to get a job at Facebook.
Ever since Facebook announced it was moving to a bigger office and raised $2 billion in funding, it has been ramping up its hiring.
While there are many openings in legal, communications, HR, marketing, online operations, business development, IT, design, user experience and internationalization, the company is especially looking for technical talent, especially software engineers and product managers.
I actually went through the entire Facebook interview process in 2008, before I joined Mashable as an associate editor. And while it’s definitely changed since I applied for a job on the company’s User Operations team, the basic format has remained the same.
The first step is almost always a recruiter phone-screening — Facebook will begin exploring your resume, asking you about your previous work, especially about what you’ve built and what leadership roles you’ve had in the past. Sometimes there’s a second screening, depending on the role.
If you pass the screening, the company will fly you out to its Silicon Valley headquarters for a series of on-site interviews with the hiring manager (your potential future boss) and a group of your peers — in other words, you will be interviewed by the members of the team you’re hoping to join. As Arnold explained to me, these interviews are designed to determine whether you have the skills for the job and whether you’re a cultural fit. The group then makes “a collective decision on whether you’re a great fit” for the position.
The process itself greatly varies from group to group — expect more technical skill challenges if you’re applying for an engineering job. Oh, and one extra piece of advice from me: Always put the user first in any scenario or interview question.
With more than a quarter of a million applicants, how does Facebook whittle down the applicant pool?
“We’re primarily looking for builders,” Arnold says. He explains that Facebook has an entrepreneurial spirit and is a flat organization, and thus it’s looking for people who can thrive in that environment. Employees need to be self-starters who don’t need a lot of direction, so autonomy and self-motivation are highly valued.
Builders — especially engineers who like to build projects on their own and have cool, working products or apps they can show off — are sought after by the Facebook team. If someone builds a unique application and/or solves a problem in a way that hasn’t been done before, he’s going to get Facebook’s attention.
Strong applicants to Facebook also “just get the social space,” Arnold says. They not only understand the product, but can see the company’s vision. Even more important is that they’re active users of the product. This may seem like a no-brainer, but Arnold says his team finds a lot of applicants who haven’t used their Facebook accounts in weeks or even months. And that is a very clear sign to Facebook that the person won’t be a good fit.
Finally, it’s very helpful to know someone at Facebook who can vouch for you — this was true even when I interviewed with the social network three years ago. While I got special consideration due to my unique history with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, I still had a Facebook reference.
While I ultimately failed to secure a job at Facebook, you don’t have to let that be the case for you. For those of you applying to non-technical roles, be sure you’re active users, understand the company culture and have a resume filled with leadership and “builder” activities. It’s more impressive if you launched an organization or product than if you simply took it over.
For technical talent, the best thing you can do is build something. If you build a really impressive iPhone application that gains some traction, you’re going to get noticed. If you are a major contributor of open source code to various projects, you’re going to get noticed.
In the end though, the big filter is cultural fit. There isn’t really much you can do to prepare for that — the Facebook team simply knows if you’re going to mesh well with them or if you’re not going to be able to keep up.
And as I said before, be sure to have an employee refer you. Otherwise, you’re going to have a really difficult time just getting the phone screening.
Have you gone through the interview process and landed a job at Facebook? Tell us in the comments below.
Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post 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!
- Top 5 Tips for Creating Impressive Video Resumes
- Are Cover Letters Still Relevant For Social Media and Tech Jobs?
- HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile’s New Skills Section
- Top 5 Online Communities for Starting Your Career
- HOW TO: Land a Business Development Job
More About: careers, facebook, Facebook Jobs, hiring, job interview, job search, job search series, jobs
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Microsoft Word users are already familiar with the idea of a ribbon interface, where a tabbed and extra-tall toolbar resides at the top of the page, offering dynamic groups of icons in an attempt to make the user interface more efficient. Microsoft also added the ribbon interface to a couple of applets within Windows 7, including Paint and WordPad.
We’ve already shown you leaked pics of Windows 8′s taskbar, but what we see here are experiments with Windows Explorer (for you Mac users, that’s the Windows version of the Finder), adding various groups of tabbed ribbons at the top of the window. As you’ll see in the gallery, these leaked pics, courtesy of our new pals at WithinWindows, show a UI that’s very much under construction, with most of the future icons substituted by mere placeholders so far.
We also included a bonus screenshot in the gallery, a peek at the Windows 8 login screen that was revealed on Friday and many thought was an April Fools’ Day joke. While it’s been confirmed as the real thing by a few different sites, we’re thinking its design will probably change before Windows 8 hits the streets, which we’ve heard might happen in early 2012.
None of this is too pretty yet. We’re giving this artwork the benefit of the doubt, because Windows 8 is still in its early developmental stages. But we’ve gotten used to the ribbon interface in Microsoft Office 2007, and can understand its inherent efficiency. It gives interface designers a way to place lots of controls within easy reach, rather than burying them under multiple menus.
On the other hand, with today’s wider screens, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to use up even more vertical space on user interface elements.
What do you think, commenters? Is Microsoft moving in the right direction with Windows 8?
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
Screenshot courtesy WithinWindows
More About: Leaked Screenshots, Microsoft Windows 8, Ribbon interface, Spy Shots, Windows Explorer
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TiVo users had a rude awakening this morning, finding out the email address they’d given to TiVo as part of their account registration had been compromised.
According to SecurityWeek, Epsilon is currently disclosing even more companies whose email marketing lists had been compromised. Noticing the problem first with grocery retailer Kroger, Epsilon continues releasing company names that were affected by the breach. Here’s the list gathered so far:
Considering that Epsilon has more than 2,500 clients sending 40 billion emails each year, this list could keep growing.
TiVo tried to sooth victims, saying the release of personal data “was limited to first name and/or email addresses only.” Here’s the email we received from TiVo this morning:
While TiVo attempts to minimize the implications of this security breach, email addresses are now in the hands of those who would break into the database of a huge email conglomerate. This means those addresses might be targeted with phishing schemes, spam, and other annoyances.
Now that they have a list of confirmed email addresses, those spammers and other miscreants will have much better success at targeting their victims.
Other organizations such as Citi, Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards also warned their users, with lots more warnings probably on the way.
More About: email, Epsilon, Kroger, security breach, tivo, US Bank
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If you remember the days when having a “transportable” telephone meant you had to carry around a powerpack the size of a beer cooler, then this collection of videos is going to send you down memory lane.
For anyone who doesn’t recall those golden years, this gallery is a fascinating insight into the cellphone technology of yesteryear. Commercials are like windows onto a society’s cultural mores. Here you can catch a glimpse of what was aspirational at the time.
Prepare yourself for some seriously retro tech, some cheesy commercial toons and some just plain awful hair and click through the gallery. Let us know in the comments below which ads are your favorites.
Let's face it. The only reason that woman can hide her humongous phone is because her hair is so big.
Ex-Doctor Who Tom Baker sells out, sorry, advertises BT Cellnet phones by comparing them to a Roman amphitheater. We don't really get it either.
This phone is only "transportable" in the very loosest sense of the word.
Here, Nokia takes an unusual approach by promoting the cell phone as a high-tech little black book for sleazy yuppies.
If you ever wondered why General Electric never made it big in the cell phone market, this advert from 1989 should help shed some light.
Motorola's approach to flogging early cellphones was to highlight every single scenario in which such a device might prove useful. We get it already!
This ad is so bad it's good.
Billed on YouTube as the first cellphone ad, this ghastly video is all aspirational lifestyle and good looking, healthy and affluent people. It apparently didn't do Centel much good in the long run.
Now this is just plain scary.
We leave you with our favorite video of the lot. This informative clip from Motorola brings the news that eventually, "seeing people using cellular phones may seem as commonplace as someone checking time on an electronic watch." Bring on the "cellular revolution!"
More About: advertising, cell phones, gallery, List, Lists, Motorola, Nokia, retro, trending, video, videos, vintage
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Not since the first iPhone was rolled out in 2007 has there been so much chatter about one gadget. There have been so many rumors about the iPhone 5, it’s difficult to keep them all straight, but those talented French artists at Nowhere Else have laid them out for us here in beautiful style. Merci beaucoup, mes amis!
Be sure to check the blue progress bars for the likelihood of each one of these rumors to actually occur. They look mostly accurate to us, with one exception: After last night’s revelations about Sony’s involvement with the next iPhone’s image sensor from Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer, that 50% chance of a better camera seems like it ought to be around 80 to 90%.
Let us know in the comments if you think these predictions are accurate.
More About: apple, infographic, iPhone 5, Nowhere Else, rumors, trending
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Consider the lowly nail clipper. Unchanged for decades, it doesn’t work very well. The inventors of Klhip aim to change that.
Let’s just get this out of the way up front: These fingernail clippers cost $70, and if you want them in their swanky, handstitched leather case, they’ll set you back $95. What on earth makes them cost so much, and are they worth it? We got one of these little gadgets in our Midwest Test Facility, and clipped a bunch of nails to find out.
If you care about how your finger nail clippers look, you’re going to love Klhip. Its brushed stainless steel finish and unusual shape is aesthetically pleasing, and in this instance, function follows form, because they work extremely well.
Maybe I’ve been using dull clippers, but my first impression of this precision instrument is that it’s exceptionally sharp. It cuts through even the thickest toenails like butter. However, its blades aren’t quite curved enough for my taste, cutting nails with a straight line, necessitating multiple clips to get a smooth, curved edge.
Klhip’s makers say it’s designed to catch a lot of the clippings inside, but we noticed the clippings falling to the floor anyway. But that’s an improvement, because the clippings don’t go flying all over the place. The trajectory of clipped nails is somehow dampened, with their direction after clipping more predictable than when using conventional clippers.
The trick of these futuristic clippers is the fact that when you’re cutting your nails with Klhip, you’re applying pressure directly over the area that’s doing the cutting, rather than the other way around with conventional clippers. I found these clippers to be a lot easier to control, with their “falling rate cam” slowing down the cutting edges as they close in on the nail.
Should anyone spend $70 for a pair of nail clippers? If you’re rich, sure. If you’re currently unhappy with the way your clippers (or nail file) help you perform your personal manicures, maybe. If for some reason you’re completely bothered by fingernail clippings flying all over the room, definitely.
This is a gorgeous luxury item, and if giving it to someone didn’t imply that you thought he needed to take better care of his nails, it would be the perfect gift — something you wouldn’t buy for yourself, but would be delighted if someone gave to you.
This is not your daddy's nail clipper.
Spin its lever around, and Klhip is ready for action, where you apply pressure directly above the cutting area.
The "falling rate cam" slows down the cutting action as the two cutters get closer to each other.
It folds flat.
The $70 Klhip comes in a metal box that resembles an Altoid tin. Spend $95, and you get the clippers in a handsome hand-stitched case.
More About: Fingernail Clippers, Grooming, hands-on, Klhip, Nails, reviews
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While Facebook marketing is on the rise among small businesses, many are still struggling to master the basics.
“Many people have difficulty with just the basic Page set up,” says social media marketing consultant Nicole Krug. “For example, I still see people setting up their business as a profile page instead of a business Page. I have other clients who jumped into Groups when they came out and have divided their fan base.”
Here are five more common Facebook marketing mistakes to avoid:
Ask any social marketing consultant what the number-one no-no is on Facebook, and he’ll likely tell you it’s “broadcasting” your messages instead of providing fans with relevant content and engaging on an continual basis.
“With Facebook, marketers of any size can do effective, word-of-mouth marketing at scale for the very first time. But Facebook is all about authenticity, so if your company is not being authentic or engaging with customers in a way that feels genuine, the community will see right through it,” says Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta.
Peter Shankman, social media consultant, entrepreneur and author of “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World,” agrees.
“Your job is to interact, not just to broadcast,” says Shankman. “Fans are looking for a reason to connect with you, and they’re showing you that by clicking ‘Like.’ Your job is to give them a reason to stay.”
According to Andy Smith, co-author of “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change,” many businesses immediately ask how Facebook is going to make them money and have that be the focus, as opposed to trying to engage customers and provide a meaningful, authentic online experience. “Marketers need to recognize that people go to Facebook to make a connection or feel like part of a community,” says Smith.
Another common mistake is underestimating the amount of time a successful Facebook strategy entails. Many social media consultants report seeing a pervasive “set it and forget it” mentality among small businesses.
“Some small business owners are under the impression that if they set up a Page on Facebook, that’s all they have to do. They think people will just naturally come and want to be a fan of their product or service,” says Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools. “But it takes much more of a commitment than that.”
It’s not just fan growth that will suffer from this approach — it may also hurt your relationships with existing fans, particularly customers who have come to expect timely responses to their posts and queries.
“Unlike traditional advertising methods such as a radio spot or a Yellow Pages listing, you can’t just create a Facebook Page and just let it run its course,” says Alex Levine, a social media strategist at Paco Communications. “Creating a Facebook Page is the first of many steps, but the Page needs to be updated and monitored constantly.”
When they’re thinking about marketing, some business owners forget that Facebook is a social place where people share things they find funny, interesting or useful with their friends. Think about what kind of content your fans would actually want to share when planning your posts.
Shankman also cautions against becoming too predictable. “Status updates by themselves get boring. But then again, so do photos, videos and multimedia as a whole. Your job is to mix it up. The moment you become predictable, boring or annoying, they’ll hide you from their feed. So keep it varied and personal — a video here, a photo here, a tag of one of your fans here.”
Creating too much “filler” content by auto-publishing content from your blog or Twitter feed can also derail your efforts. Joseph Manna, community manager at Infusionsoft, recommends using Facebook’s native publishing tools to gain the most benefit from Facebook.
“Whatever you do, DON’T automate everything,” says Manna. “It’s nice to ‘set and forget,’ but the risk is two-fold: publishing systems sometimes have issues, and Facebook places low-priority on auto-published content.”
Since Facebook is a relatively new medium, some businesses have yet to explore all its functionality and they’re missing out on creating an optimal brand experience.
“Many small businesses do not take advantage of the tools to introduce themselves to the Facebook audience,” says Krug. “For example, the ‘Info’ tab is rarely utilized well, and very few small businesses [create] a custom welcome page.”
Krug also sees frequent mistakes around one of the most basic elements of Facebook presence: the profile image. “Most companies upload a version of their logo, but the resulting thumbnail image that shows up in news feeds often only captures a few letters in the middle of their logo — this partial, meaningless image is then how they’re branded throughout Facebook,” says Krug.
Facebook Insights, Facebook’s built-in analytics system, is also often overlooked, and with it the opportunity to analyze post-performance to see what types of content gets the most engagement.
Not only is it critical to know how Facebook works and what tools are available, it’s also important to know the rules of the road — something that many businesses miss.
“Every day I see organizations endangering the communities they are growing by violating the terms they agreed to when their Facebook presence was created,” says small business marketing consultant Lisa Jenkins.
What are the most common violations? Some build a community on a personal page instead of a proper Facebook Page. Others fail to abide by Facebook’s rules around running contests. And don’t even think about “tagging” people who are in an image without their permission.
“Tagging people to get their attention is not only a violation of Terms but can be reported by those you are tagging as abusive behavior on your part — which brings your violation to Facebook’s attention and opens your Page’s content to review,” warns Jenkins.
To avoid these common mistakes, invest time in learning about the Facebook platform, educate yourself on how to build and sustain an audience, and don’t forget to engage with people like you do in real life.
“What sets small businesses apart from large companies is their ability to make personal connections with customers,” says Ben Nesvig of FuzedMarketing. “They tend to forget this when they join Facebook, yet it’s their biggest strength and asset.”
- 4 Ways to Set Up a Storefront on Facebook
- HOW TO: Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website
- The Future of Social Search
- 5 Creative Facebook Places Marketing Campaigns
- Dog: Man’s Best Facebook Friend, Too? [INFOGRAPHIC]
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If a dog can stay alive under these conditions, couldn’t a human? That’s an important question, because there are still 18,000 tsunami and earthquake victims missing in Japan, with little hope for their survival.
How did this dog stay alive? While dogs and humans can survive for three weeks without food, they can’t go longer than a couple of days without water. Floating in the ocean off the coast of Japan, the dog was surrounded by salt water, but like a human in the same situation, that wouldn’t have kept him alive — according to the Department of Energy’s Ask a Scientist website:
Humans can’t drink salt water because the kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. Therefore, to get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking salt water, you have to urinate more water than you drank, so you die of dehydration.
It must have been a rainy three weeks aboard this ragtag vessel, where small collected pools of fresh water must have kept the dog alive.
It’s probably too late for more survivors to be found, but it’s not too late for you to help earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Here’s how.
More About: Coast Guard, dog, japan, Rescue, Survivor, trending, tsunami, video
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This week we have stories about top digital marketing agencies, how to earn money from crowdworking, and even some baseball mobile apps to get you excited for America’s national pastime. Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time.
For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.
Image courtesy of Flickr, metaroll
More About: business, facebook, Features Week In Review, gadgets, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, social media, tech, technology, twitter
In an interview late Friday with the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, the Sony chief was talking about earthquake damage to 15 of the Sony’s factories in Japan, and inadvertently mentioned that a camera sensor made in one of those plants is on its way to Apple, and that sensor would be delayed because of the quake and tsunami.
Stringer didn’t specifically say that Sony is building an 8-megapixel image sensor that will go into the iPhone 5, but since Sony is currently not manufacturing any image sensors for Apple, this confirmed that Sony plans to supply components of the iPhone 5.
This points to the distinct possibility that in the iPhone 5, Apple will no longer be using those OmniVision 5-megapixel image sensors currently inside the iPhone 4. This is supported by an analyst’s report from February of this year saying that OmniVision might lose out on supplying cameras for the iPhone 5 because OmniVision’s 8-megapixel sensor won’t be ready for the iPhone 5′s rumored mid-summer launch.
Because Stringer was talking about the irony of supplying the company’s best camera to Apple, we can only surmise that he was talking about an 8-megapixel sensor. Here’s what The Wall Street Journal wrote about Stringer’s quote when reporting on its own event this morning:
Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?” It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.
Stringer’s inadvertent slip also lends credence to the rumors of a delayed release of the iPhone 5.
So what do you think, readers? Is this enough evidence for us to bet on a Sony 8-megapixel camera going into the iPhone 5?
More About: camera, ceo, Howard Stringer, Image sensor, iPhone 5, omnivision, sony, trending
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What was the world tweeting about this past week? In a word: sports. Four out of ten of this week’s top trends come from global athletics.
But all that sports chatter couldn’t top GaGa, whose 25th birthday and 9 million followers sent her name straight to the top of this week’s chart.
A rumor about the death of martial arts movie star Jackie Chan began to percolate and pick up steam on Twitter around the middle of the week. Despite obvious indications of it being a hoax, celeb death rumors move a lot of tweets, and the surge positioned the trend at number two. So much for Twitter being a reliable breaking news network.
And rounding out the top set, soccer makes its regular appearance in the number three slot, thanks to a few popular international friendlies.
To see the full list of trends, check out the chart below, compiled by our friends at What the Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. The aggregate is based on Twitter’s own trending algorithm, and does not necessarily reflect raw tweet volume.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section, and read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.
Rank | Topic | Intensity | Description |
#1 | Lady GaGa | 1 | Lady Gaga fans celebrated her 25th birthday and that her Twitter account now has 9 million followers. |
#2 | Jackie Chan Death Hoax | 1 | There are reports on Twitter that Jackie Chan has passed away but it is a hoax. Despite people knowing this, they are repeating this trend. |
#3 | Soccer/Football | 1 | Clube Atletico Mineiro (GALO), a major Brazilian soccer team, celebrated the 103rd anniversary of their team. Ghana faced off with the England national team in an international friendly match as did the USA and Argentina. |
#4 | New York City | 1 | People are tweeting messages directed towards New York City. |
#5 | Oxford English Dictionary | 1 | LOL, OMG and FYI have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. |
#6 | Formula 1 Racing | 1 | Formula 1 Racing fans talked about KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), a system now is use in Formula 1. Users were following the results of the Australian Grand Prix. |
#7 | Cricket | 1 | Cricket fans were very excited about the ICC World Cup 2011 semi-final between India and Pakistan. |
#8 | NCAA March Madness | 1 | College basketball fans tweeted about teams they were following in the NCAA Basketball Tournament as they moved into the Final Four: Butler, UConn, Kentucky and VCU. |
#9 | Britney Spears | 1 | Britney Spears took the stage of the Rain Club in the Palms Las Vegas casino to film an MTV special as part of her Femme Fatale album promotion. She also performed on Good Morning America. |
#10 | Geraldine Ferraro | 1 | Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman and Italian-American to run on a U.S. presidential ticket, died at the age of 75. |
Top trend illustration courtesy of SoftFacade.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 123render
More About: jackie chan, Lady Gaga, List, Lists, social media, Top Twitter Topics, twitter
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This software, which allows for safe and anonymous web browsing, was given the FSF’s Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The award is intended to highlight “a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society through collaboration to accomplish an important social task.”
Without question, enabling the Internet’s role in political revolution has been an important social task, and one that the Tor Project has explicitly supported. In its section on activist users, Tor reps state that anonymous browsing is essential for reporting abuses of power and organizing protests, especially from behind government-sponsored firewalls and ISP blocks.
“Using free software,” the FSF writes, “Tor has enabled roughly 36 million people around the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity. Its network has proved pivotal in dissident movements in both Iran and more recently Egypt.”
In Iran, political dissent before, during and after the 2009 election caused a firestorm on Twitter and Facebook; as a result, the government began censoring many apps and sites. The Tor Project allowed users to bypass the blocks and access the web apps they needed to continue to organize.
And in Egypt and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East, a couple months of steady political unrest has been punctuated by periods of site-specific blocks and even total Internet blackouts. Once again, Tor was instrumental for continuing to allow many users to access the web, where they communicated internally and externally and rallied for change.
Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project, was present to accept the award from the FSF and its founder and president Richard M. Stallman during a March 19 ceremony.
Previous winners of this award include such notable FOSS projects as the Internet Archive, Creative Commons and Wikipedia.
More About: award, Egypt, foss, free software, middle east, politics, tor
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A six-foot hole was somehow ripped in the top of the plane just five rows behind where Redden sat, and the frightened passenger said the resulting loss of cabin pressure was “hands down the scariest experience of my life.”
Redden gave eyewitness accounts of the experience on her Twitter account, @BluestMuse, and used Twitpic to relay images of the damaged plane and air masks and communicate with journalists about the flight and the passengers.
Just after 4 p.m., the emergency aboard Southwest flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento began. The cabin lost pressure, and air masks dropped from the plane’s overhead compartments. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona.
Of the ordeal, Redden noted that passengers heard an “explosion sound, then a rush of air. Masks dropped, and a woman screamed. Everyone else was calm. Pilot landed safely.” While Redden said the noise of the ripped-open plane was “super loud,” she lauded the flight crew, who “stayed calm and checked on everyone.”
According to Redden and confirmations from authorities, no passengers were harmed (although Redden said two fainted), and one flight attendant was slightly injured during the landing.
Yuma International Airport director Craig Williams told the Associated Press these types of emergency landings are “rare but not unheard of.”
Williams said the flight ended in an uneventful landing in Yuma, where passengers waited for an hour or less for another plane to get them back in the air. “The passengers are all fine … keep dinner warm, they’re been there as soon as we can get them there,” Williams said.
Overall, Southwest received a couple complimentary mentions of the crew and pilot’s commendable poise during the emergency. The airline issued a statement saying, “Upon safely landing in Yuma, the flight crew discovered a hole in the top of the aircraft … A Southwest aircraft with maintenance, ground crew, and customer service agents onboard, is on its way from Phoenix to Yuma to assess the damaged aircraft and support the 118 customers onboard. They are expected to arrive in Sacramento later tonight.”
Investigation of the incident will be conducted by Southwest, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). An FAA spokesperson told the L.A. Times that, while no one yet knows the cause for the acciden, the Boeing 737 “made a rapid, controlled descent” from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet after the loss of cabin pressure.
Redden’s pictures are below. What would you have done in her position?
As the cabin lost pressurization, air masks dropped from the overhead compartments.
As the cabin lost pressurization, air masks dropped from the overhead compartments.
Here, Redden shows the six-foot hole that was ripped in the side of the plane.
The pilot of Southwest flight 812, who safely landed the damaged plane in Yuma with all passengers in good health.
More About: citizen journalism, flight, plane, shawna redden, Southwest, trending, twitpic
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Thirty-five years later, Apple is now the most valuable technology company in the world. Its market capitalization exceeds $317 billion, trumping longtime rival Microsoft by more than $100 billion. And Apple’s iconic products sit on the desks and in the pockets of millions of people across the world.
Most people know bits and pieces of the Apple story, but the company has a complicated history. Some of us may not know, for example, that Apple had a third co-founder, Ronald Wayne, who got cold feet and sold his 10% stake in Apple less than two weeks later. Everybody knows Steve Jobs, but they may not know Mike Markkula, one of Apple’s first angel investors and the company’s second CEO.
In the 35 years of Apple’s existence, the company has gone through hell and back. The launch of the Macintosh in 1984 and the coinciding “1984″ Super Bowl commercial remain symbols one of Apple’s highest points, but only a year later, then-CEO John Sculley forced Steve Jobs out of the company. A decade later, in 1996, the company was on the brink of destruction when it acquired NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back. In 1997, Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple to keep it afloat (something it probably now regrets), and soon after came Apple’s golden years with the iPod, iMac, MacBook, iPhone and now the iPad.
We don’t necessarily want to dwell on Apple’s past; you can visit Wikipedia if you want a lesson in Apple Inc.’s history. Instead, let’s focus on what Apple might do in the next 35 years.
For the last 35 years, Apple has almost always been the underdog. While it languished, Microsoft flourished. In fact, Apple surpassed Microsoft in market cap for the first time last May.
For the next few decades, however, the technology titan will be incumbent. Apple has a giant target on its back, and it’s not just Microsoft taking aim. Apple also faces challenges from Google, Amazon and a plethora of mobile device manufacturers. While Apple is handily beating its competition today, the status quo could change at any moment.
And while Apple fends off Android, PCs and competing tablets, it has its eye on creating a post-PC world. Rather than compete on hardware specs, it competes on design and user experience. Its a world of mobile devices that Apple intends to dominate for decades to come.
Leading the charge is Steve Jobs, not only the company’s CEO but also its heart and soul. While he’s currently on medical leave, he did show up for the unveiling of the iPad 2, demonstrating things aren’t as dire as previously rumored.
Still, Apple will some day have to continue its quest to redefine technology without its iconic leader, and many question whether anybody can provide the design and product vision Jobs has imparted on the company he founded 35 years ago.
Even if you aren’t a fan of Apple products, it’s tough not to be impressed with what Apple has been able to accomplish since 1976. We wonder what products it will create and challenges it will face in the next 35 years. Right now though, the sun is definitely shining down on Cupertino.
More About: iMac, ipad, iPad 2, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone 3Gs, iphone 4, ipod, mac, macbook, Macbook Pro, macintosh, steve jobs, steve wozniak
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The application, available for iPhone and Android, is a combination of social networking and photo sharing. Unlike traditional social networks though, there is no “friending” or “following” — the app figures out your social graph from implicit data such as who you hang out with and who you’re interacting with the most. It also lets you see the albums people are creating near you, whether they’re a friend or a stranger.
The company, which raised an astounding $41 million in venture capital before its launch, has received mixed reviews for the app. While Color has interesting technology (it can figure out who’s in a room based on ambient sound and light), its interface has been criticized as confusing; and the app is useless when nobody is nearby. Last week, Mashable spoke with CEO Bill Nguyen about these issues; at that time, Nguyen promised Color would fix these issues in the next update.
True to those words, Color 1.0.2 addresses some of these complaints with a series of stability improvements, updated icons and navigation changes.
The first thing you’ll notice is the inclusion of several new icons. These icons, which include captions when you press them, provide easier access to a user’s feed, history, notifications and nearby photos. Color has also replaced some icons that were difficult to understand. One example is the Heart icon, which shares photo albums on Facebook, Twitter and SMS. It has been replaced with a more intuitive paper airplane icon, making its purpose clear.
In addition to the icon and UI changes, Color 1.0.2 adds big speed improvements, as the lack of speed had hindered the app’s usability. Finally, the app is now available in three additional languages: Japanese, French and Chinese.
What do you think of the updated version of the app? Will it make you use it more, or is it too little, too late? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
More About: apple, color, iOS, iphone app
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In the report “Mobile Payments Enter a Disruptive Phase,” Forrester analyst Thomas Husson says that only 12% of adults in the U.S. and 6% of adults in Europe have made transactions from their phones. Still, Forrester finds that mobile payments “have the potential to disrupt existing payment systems.” The speed in which this disruption takes hold of the industry, however, may be slow going.
When we talk about mobile payments, we’re really talking about two different types of solutions. The first is to use a mobile network to initialize and authorize a transaction. This can be done using SMS or carrier billing.
The second type involves the burgeoning NFC and contactless mobile payment systems. 2011 promises to be the year that NFC devices will ship en masse. Already RFID and NFC pilot programs have been tested by companies like Visa and Bank of America. Still, the first wide-scale demonstration of NFC and contactless payments probably won’t occur until the 2012 Olympics in London. Forrester says it likely will take until 2013 through 2015 for mobile payments to exist in a cross-market, interoperable way.
The transition will take time, Forrester says, because consumer interest in mobile payments is low. Vendors need to give users a reason to care. To create demand, they must adopt mobile payments for the systems to work. This becomes a catch-22 situation. Vendors and mobile payment companies may need to take the lead on convincing merchants and consumers to jump on board.
Still, the very real business and market realities not withstanding, mobile payments do have the potential to disrupt existing markets in the future. This is one reason that so many existing payment processors — like American Express and its new Serve initiative — are entering the mobile payment space with such vigor.
More About: forrester, mobile payments, nfc, paypal, serve, studies
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It’s been a big couple of weeks for the guys in Eclectic Method. Their first single, “Outta Sight” (featuring Chuck D from Public Enemy), dropped on March 15 via a special microsite, and they also appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon just this week.
Check out the video for their single below, and then head down the page for a lovely melange of dancey silliness. (Ian Edgar is the dude from Eclectic Method.)
Ian Edgar: You got to stick it out a couple of minutes with this whimsical video rhythm piece by Spanish a/v nonsense merchants, OAU! It's a criminally underviewed clip, but that adds to the joy of watching these two guys put a fair bit of effort into something really pretty silly, a simulation of a video drum machine featuring themselves. Perhaps we see ourselves in them, fellow accelerators of the global video apocalypse.
Emily Banks: This is just crazy, and I have no idea how he does it.
Zachary Sniderman: This was inevitable.
Brian Dresher: One of my all-time faves...Christopher Walken with amazing dance moves in the "Weapon of Choice" video.
Josh Catone: It's a mathematical constant.
Ada Ospina: ... Or lack there of. I've never heard Rachel Black but I'm team #CathyMay15.
Erica Swallow: One of my favorite bands is Stone Forest Ensemble. I'm constantly amazed at their rhythmic amazingness.
Josh Catone: Andrew Bird at TED = awesome. If I ever win the lottery, I plan to hire this man to score my life.
Brenna Ehrlich: This video looks like it would be fun to live in. A little NSFW.
More About: eclectic method, music, viral videos, youtube
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At a startup it’s painfully hard to make time for recruiting. Any time not spent advancing the product feels like a distant secondary priority. However, getting the right team in place is the most important thing you can do to make your startup successful.
Your first few hires set the tone for your culture. What’s more, it’s often said that A-level hires get you more top quality hires in the long run. You don’t just need to make time for recruiting — you have to be great at it.
What follows are my tips and tricks for finding and closing all-star hires on a startup budget.
While you’ll be tempted to outsource recruiting so you can focus on the product, recruiting starts and ends with you. No one can recruit harder than you. No one knows the right fit like you do. And no one can sell the opportunity like you can. Before you look for help, block out some time on your schedule and hit LinkedIn hard.
Get ready for an endless stream of coffees and lunches. Sound painful? It is. You have to do it anyway. What’s worse, many of these meetings won’t even lead directly to hires. They aren’t a complete waste of time however; karma has a good memory and the positive relationships you build now will pay off eventually.
Once you’ve exhausted the outer rings of your network, it’s time to get help. A great recruiter can be a tremendous asset. I look for folks who I can pay by the hour and offer them a nice cash incentive for a fast hire. Contingency recruiters, and their exorbitant fees, are a personal anathema of mine. Who has twenty grand to spend per hire?
In my experience, recruiters come in three flavors: Lead generators (a.k.a. “sourcers”), Process Builders, and Closers. Very few people have all three of these skills. In fact, depending on your rate of growth, you probably only need a sourcer.
Need more leads? Tap local professional associations or try hosting a meetup. My company recently hosted a meetup for Ruby developers. It cost us $200 in pizza but we had more than 40 developers right in our office. Thanks to several obnoxious “We’re Hiring” signs, I had six interviews scheduled in two days.
Interviewing can feel even more painful than generating leads. After all, now you’re tapping your team as well. However, the interviewing process is really where closing begins. And closing great hires requires a holistic approach in which you examine every aspect of the candidate experience.
Take a look at how your candidates flow through your interview process. Are your candidates greeted warmly and treated with respect? Is your office environment stimulating and welcoming? Talk to your team about how to close candidates, making sure they know that interviewing is about “buying” and “selling.” Have your team make sure candidates are appropriately handed off from interview to interview.
Finally, when your loop is over, make sure the hiring manager sees them out and lets them know precisely what’s next. The impression you make through the interview process can be the difference between getting that rock star software architect and another batch of painful first-round interviews.
Do you have a gap between interview rounds? Make it as short as possible and don’t go dark. At my previous company, we sent “swag” kits to hot candidates between rounds. It doesn’t cost much to toss some logo gear together. Include a note from the first few interviewers expressing excitement at the prospect of working together. The goal is getting your candidate feeling like they are already on the team.
In the end, you need to close and closing is an art. I don’t like making an offer without knowing it will be accepted. Understand your candidate’s hot buttons, if they have any special needs, and the role of their significant other in the decision. Here’s a quick list of the lengths I’ve gone to close all-star hires.
Sometimes you have to go over the top. A few years ago I was recruiting an absolute star. I had tried to hire her once before, but was turned town. A year later it became clear she was ready for an offer and I wasn’t going to miss out. Learning from my first attempt, I wanted to make sure that I built some momentum and closed the spouse too. So I created a campaign.
First she received a swag kit and card. Three days later she received a printed press kit followed by a nice dinner. By the time she got the offer letter, with a unique extra or two, she was overwhelmed. She joked that she might have to get a restraining order … and then she promptly accepted.
While this may sound like a big investment it doesn’t need to be. All-star hires are worth their weight in gold and the time spent closing them is time saved in eliminating future interviews for you and your team. Think about the last time you were recruited heavily. It’s nice being wanted isn’t it?
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, purmar
More About: business, hiring, how to, MARKETING, Recruiting, startup, startups
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NFC, or near-field communication, allows for wireless transfer of data over short distances between two devices. This makes it an ideal technology for financial transactions between a phone and a device at a brick-and-mortar store.
While NFC is still in its infancy in the U.S., it is prevalent in Japan, where you can pay for almost anything by simply swiping your phone. There’s no need for credit cards, cash or even ID. Your smartphone is your wallet.
A lot of companies are betting that 2011 is the year NFC takes off in the U.S., and are working on their own NFC payment solutions. This list includes some very big players:
In a wide-open NFC mobile payment market, you can make a compelling case for any of these companies to become the dominant player. Google is moving faster than anybody else in the market, has a partnership deal with Mastercard and Citigroup, and controls the Android OS. Apple not only has iPhone, but it has iTunes, making it the company with the most credit card information on the web. Microsoft may be behind in the mobile OS race, but its partnership with Nokia should fix that problem. And Isis alone controls more than 200 million wireless subscribers and hundreds of millions of handsets.
And then there’s Amazon. While it doesn’t control a mobile OS or millions of smartphones, it does have the most payments experience and clout of the group. It has also proven adept at developing strong mobile apps. And even more important is its potential ability to convince brick-and-mortar stores to include its own NFC devices in their stores.
It’s easy to see why all of these companies care about NFC. It’s potentially game changing technology. As Mashable‘s Sarah Kessler explained last year, NFC could be used in payments, transportation, health care, smart objects and social media. Each one of those industries is a multi-billion dollar market on its own.
The NFC battle is going to be waged over years, or even decades. The stakes are simply too high for anyone to let a competitor dominate the market.
More About: amazon, android, apple, Google, iOS, iphone, iphone 4, iPhone 5, mobile payments, nfc
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Even though the graphic the site creates looks like a real tweet, it’s nothing of the sort. Once you enter a Twitter handle, TweetForger simply scrapes up your victim’s twitter background and then re-creates it almost perfectly with your chosen text inserted within.
While this looks pretty scary — and somebody might be calling up some lawyers any minute now — it’s just harmless fun. Here’s how the creators of Tweetforger explain it:
“TweetForger is a fun way to make it appear as if a Twitter user has tweeted something. You can pick any user you want, enter some text, and TweetForger will create an individual, look-alike tweet. Nothing you do here will appear in anyone’s Twitter stream, even your own. TweetForger is just for fun. Please don’t be a jerk.”
There’s still a few hours left of April Fools’ Day, so if it appeals to you, go ahead and make fools out of all your friends.
Meanwhile, here’s an example of TweetForger’s handiwork:
More About: April Fools' Day, Gags, jokes, pranks, Tweetforger, twitter
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The program, Aprons in Action, was launched by The Home Depot Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm. In 2011, the Foundation committed $30 million over three years to non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the homes and lives of economically disadvantaged veterans.
Aprons in Action will tap Home Depot’s 250,000+ Facebook fans to help place that money in worthy hands. Each month, the Facebook competition will feature four community improvement projects to be completed by company volunteers and a local non-profit. Users can then vote between those projects to determine which gets a $25,000 Home Depot gift card. All featured projects will at least receive $5,000 in gift cards.
Those monthly winners (11 in total) will then be put into another competition for a larger grant of $250,000. There will also be runner up grants worth $150,000 and $100,000. By the end of the program, Aprons in Action will have donated $1 million. It’s no small number, and adds to the $270 million the Foundation has already donated to non-profits since its formation in 2002.
“Social media and philanthropy are a natural fit,” said Kelly Caffarelli, president of the Foundation, in a release. “What we’re doing that’s a little different here is getting people to support a cause they feel good about, letting them use our money to do it and giving our associates a chance to amplify their impact in their hometowns.”
Crowdsourced philanthropy has become a trend in social good, but its effects are still unclear. Opening up competitions to the public is a great way to increase reach and turn your audience into evangelists. By canvassing for votes, your fans not only share your brand by also promote a good cause close to their heart. Crowdsourced voting, however, can sometimes overtake the cause at hand as organizations push for more votes in order to “win” rather than to “help.”
To be sure, this isn’t always the case. Home Depot is helping to alleviate this possibility by providing benefits and financial support to all its featured projects.
What do you make of using crowdsourcing as a tool for social good and online giving? What is Home Depot doing right? What could it do better? Sound off in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr, jphilipg
More About: aprons in action, charity, crowdsourced, facebook, Home Depot, home depot foundation, non-profit, social good
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Facebook’s Profile to Page migration tool has been disabled.
The tool allowed users to convert Facebook Profiles into Facebook Pages, turning friends into fans, and was aimed primarily at brands and organizations.
The new feature was launched to little fanfare earlier this week, but managed to generate a lot of publicity after being featured on Inside Facebook, CNET, The Huffington Post and of course, Mashable. I decided to test the tool on my own account — and ran into a number of serious problems. Although my situation was resolved (a huge thanks to the Facebook engineer who helped me), it’s not an experience I would wish on anyone.
As of Friday, the option to convert profiles to pages appears to be disabled. Visiting the tool page redirects to the standard “create a page” tool. We’ve reached out to Facebook for official comment.
In the comments on my post yesterday, other readers who had attempted the conversion chimed in with their experiences. It’s likely that the additional publicity given to the tool resulted in a large number of inadvisable migrations.
If the tool does return, only use it if you are absolutely certain of the consequences. The Facebook terms of service state that inanimate objects, pets, and businesses can’t have personal profile pages — so in these cases, a migration makes sense. Otherwise, you’re better off sticking with the profile you already have.
If it’s for anything other than TOS compliance, it’s probably not a good idea to move forward.
More About: facebook, facebook migration
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In addition to its incredible success as the de facto portal for video uploads and viewing, YouTube is itself a community. For brands, it provides an additional viable opportunities to spark discussion with followers. It’s a place to build relationships and create a space for users to converse with each other about branded content.
Just as Facebook has become an incredibly popular place for brands to maintain a dialogue with their customers, YouTube offers a similar opportunity, although the conversation is driven primarily by video content. Treating YouTube not only as a platform for video distribution, but as a forum for engagement deepens the customer experience.
So how do companies make the most of the conversations happening on YouTube?
Whether you’re a popular consumer brand or an emerging B2B company, engaging content that prompts discussion and social pass-along requires outside-the-box thinking to make an impression (pun intended). Like any other content provided to social audiences, videos on YouTube must be engaging and compelling enough to spark those discussions and encourage sharing.
A classic example of this is “Will it Blend?” Blendtec’s famous video campaign that purées popular gadgets is an ingenious way to captivate viewers while demonstrating the power of the product. The ROI equaled its creativity, with sales jumping 700% since the campaign started four years ago. Great content brings users to your channel and your videos; engaging them once they arrive is another challenge.
Pairing good content with a commitment to engaging viewers and commenters will help strengthen those relationships on YouTube. Old Spice is a fantastic example of how great content worked in conjunction with a smart response strategy. After an intensely popular run for its initial commercials, Old Spice took the relationship building potential of the YouTube community to a new level by creating 180 individual video responses to those who commented on the originals. It’s now highlighted as one of the most successful interactive campaigns in history, with 40 million impressions in the first week and a 107% jump in sales after the first month.
Understanding what your brand voice is and what your goals are will shape how your brand interacts in this space. Are you aiming to be a resource for your customers with how-to videos? Be ready to respond to questions and be as helpful in the comments as you are on film. Going strictly for the fun factor? Take a cue from Old Spice and approach your responses with the same attitude in your content that got the discussion going in the first place.
Pull lessons from platform-specific data points, such as what people “like” and “dislike” on YouTube. Initiate discussion about what’s popular and what’s not. Your viewers are voting with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down — try to get a dialog going about why.
There are discussions happening on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, often about the same content. If you post the same video to Facebook and YouTube, draw on conversations happening in other spaces.
For example, when you post a video to Facebook that’s seen traction on YouTube, point it out in a post:
“10,000 people in Acme’s YouTube community ‘liked’ this video. What do you think? Tell us here and join the discussion on YouTube.”
You’ll expose different parts of your community to other opinions and potentially encourage others to join the conversation regularly on more of your company’s social pages.
Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube can be a fertile ground for interacting with your customers. Its features and content may differ, but the basic principles for interaction remain the same. Keeping this in mind and taking a savvy approach to YouTube responses can help your company make the most of this incredibly popular social space.
More About: List, Lists, MARKETING, social media, social media marketing, video, web video, youtube
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The Onion has already has iPhone and Android apps, but this one’s different. To create OnionTablet, The Onion decided to keep development in-house, which took less than two months. Company reps tell us this internal development was more cost-effective than outsourcing the work. Built with a thin Objective-C wrapper (written by The Onion‘s developers) around an HTML5 layout, the developers decided not to use any mobile frameworks except for JavaScript and CSS.
The Onion‘s Art Director Rick Martin extolled the virtues of the humor publication’s new baby. “We find the iPad to be the optimal device for tactile, responsive news manhandling,” he says. “This app satisfies our audience’s dual-need for both shiny things and groping.”
We gave the app a try, and it works well, similar to other iPad news apps, with its orderly layout and the ability to swipe from one page to the next until you’ve read all the content. Our only complaint is that the startup screen sits there for a long time at first, requiring you to stare at a car ad for what seems like an eternity, even on the faster iPad 2. It’s a 10-second wait, but it’s quicker if you’ve recently opened that app and already downloaded most of the latest stories.
Take a tour of the app below with the gallery we created:
Touch an icon on the side, and this handy navigation screen slides out.
The car company must be happy with this ad, but users will become impatient as they stare at it for a long time as the app loads new content.
More About: April Fools' Day, ipad, iPad 2 apps, iphone, OnionTablet, the onion
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“Find the Future: The Game,” devised by renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, is a series of “quests” delivered via an app on players’ mobile devices that can be completed at the Library’s 42nd Street location. A group of 500 players will be invited to play the game for the first time at 8 p.m. on May 20 to tackle a list of 100 overnight challenges.
The challenges are designed to encourage players to explore and reflect upon the objects from the library’s collections. A player might be tasked, for instance, to scan a QR code located at the Declaration of Independence, and then respond to a creative essay prompt. Once enough quests have been completed, they will be “unlocked” for the public, who can begin playing the game online May 21.
“There is something to be said for being in the presence of rare, historic objects,” says Caro Llewellyn, producer of the Library’s Centennial celebration. “Wikipedia and Google are fantastic, but to see objects like these in the flesh has enormous power and can truly inspire creativity.”
To sign up to become one of the first 500 participants, interested parties are asked to go to nypl.org/game to complete a “top secret” quest for entry. Judges will invite the authors of the 500 most “innovative and creative” entries to the event.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Vincent Desjardins
More About: games, Mobile 2.0, new york public library, scavenger hunt, trending
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RockMelt co-founder Eric Vishria walked us through the new updates and offered us some information about who is using RockMelt and where the browser is headed.
When RockMelt launched in November 2010, the goal was to create a tool that would integrate social networks and feeds directly in the web browser. Our first brush with the browser left us with a lukewarm impression, but the concept, at the very least remained interesting.
Tools like Flock and RockMelt face an uphill battle of balancing social functionality without making the core browsing experience sub-optimal.
In that regard, Vishria told us that the team spent a lot of time looking at ways to make the interface and the interactions more seamless and less confusing. The biggest UI overhaul is related to RockMelt’s popular integrated Facebook Chat feature.
Vishria told us that RockMelt users use the built-in chat tool at least three times a day. With RockMelt Beta 2, the team has added a new chat bar at the bottom of the browser window. This bar lets users stay involved in multiple conversations at once. Each conversation can be parked in its own window or chat bar tab when users are browsing the web.
The best feature is the new notifications — very similar to Growl notifications in Mac OS X. When a chat window is minimized, users can still keep tabs on what is happening by way of an unobtrusive overlay.
RockMelt says that 50% of its users have added at least one Twitter account to the browser. One of the biggest areas of user feedback was related to the Twitter app that RockMelt uses. Thus, RockMelt redesigned the app to provide a better interface and to more deeply integrate into the Twitter API.
The new Twitter app supports the real-time Twitter API and also supports Twitter search.
Vishria told us that users are increasingly using bookmarks less — or not bookmarking content at all. Instead many users choose to save links to services like Instapaper, Readability, Pinboard and Read It Later. The advantage here is that content can be accessed for later consumption, which seems to be what users are doing more of, rather than bookmarking full sites for future reference.
Inspired by some of these services, RockMelt decided to build the ability to view a site, article, video or update later. A new View Later button was added next to the bookmark icon in the URL window. Clicking this icon will add a URL to a running list tagged “View Later.” This list can be accessed via the RockMelt App Edge in its own app.
The service differs from tools like Instapaper in that it isn’t just for text, it can be used for videos, music, status updates — anything in the browser.
Right now there isn’t a way to export any of that View Later data to other services or to integrate other services with View Later. Vishria told us that the company is planning on addressing some of those issues in the future, but for now wants a solid browser-integrated experience.
I do hope the company considers taking advantage of the Instapaper or Readability APIs and at least importing the content from those services to View Later. That could be a killer feature in its own right.
The new RockMelt is based on Chromium 10, which means it should be faster and more stable. The RockMelt team is pushing out the update to a few users now and everyone should have access to Beta 2 by next week.
RockMelt still might be the right browser for me, but for its userbase, the new version looks like a solid update with some compelling new features.
Have you used RockMelt? What do you think of custom browsers?
More About: Browsers, facebook chat, RockMelt, software, twitter
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