19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Tesco updates shopping app to include time-saving barcode scanner [TNW Mobile]
- Don’t upgrade to iPhoto ’11. Not yet anyway. [TNW Apple]
- Apple Offers Free iPad Engraving In Time For The Holidays [TNW Apple]
- Rumor: Is Apple Looking To Acquire Sony? [TNW Apple]
- Asus chairman on Garmin breakup: “I hope we can be faster than before.” [TNW Asia]
- Annoyed by Group Chat in Facebook? Here’s how to disable it. [TNW Social Media]
- GoNabIt Sets Up Shop in Amman [TNW Middle East]
- PayPal iPhone app adds push notifications, local merchant search [TNW Apps]
- iPhoto ’11 Users Reporting Cases of Photo Libraries Being Deleted [TNW Apple]
- iPhone security bug allows calls on locked phones [TNW Apple]
- YouTube Tip: Press 1, 2, 3 to jump to 10%, 20%, 30% of the video you are watching [TNW Lifehacks]
- NoteWagon: The Ultimate Extension of the Knowledge Economy? [TNW Canada]
- No custom ringtones allowed on Windows Phone 7 [TNW Microsoft]
- World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running! [TNW Shareables]
- Microsoft Ramps Up Investment in Australian Software Economy [TNW Australia]
- Google replaces Chrome 6 with Chrome 7 in record time [TNW Google]
- Google faces another privacy lawsuit; this time from California. [TNW Google]
- 11 Social Media and Technology Books You HAVE To Read [TNW Social Media]
- The 25 Largest Brand Facebook Pages With Most Likes [TNW Social Media]
- iTranslate Gets Translated For The iPad [TNW Apps]
| Tesco updates shopping app to include time-saving barcode scanner [TNW Mobile] Posted: 26 Oct 2010 03:26 AM PDT
The new feature is a barcode scanner, a simple feature that many other apps include, but is a first for UK supermarkets. Tesco has developed the scanner to help “busy parents and time-poor professionals” who don’t have the time to add specific items to a shopping list, giving them a way to add specific items to their online shopping basket at anytime with a simple scan of a barcode (in the house, the office or in another supermarket). Once a product is scanned, it is added to the users’ online checkout and remains there until he/she is ready to checkout and complete the transaction. CEO of Tesco.com Laura Wade-Gery says:
Tesco even includes a little infographic to demonstrate how the app works:
Since Tesco released its iPhone app, it has consistently ranked as one of the App Store’s Top Free Apps and has received positive reviews in the few weeks it has been available. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Don’t upgrade to iPhoto ’11. Not yet anyway. [TNW Apple] Posted: 26 Oct 2010 03:25 AM PDT
Despite a draining 20 minute demo at Apple’s “Back to Mac” event, the reports back from users have been largely negative. Reports of some people losing their entire photo libraries made headlines yesterday, others not being able to even launch the app and now stories of awful features and bugs surface. If you’re looking for a heartfelt overview of what’s wrong – deleted photo libraries aside – one Reddit user has outlined some of the issues in a rant of epic proportions: I just upgraded to iLife 11, only interested in iPhoto. I use it to store and display photos I edited in Lightroom and PS and so far up to this fateful day I have been perfectly happy with the flickr export, the slick look, the fullscreen, the easy mail and the other features. So I was pretty happy when Apple touted the new iPhoto. Now I’m stuck with it and boy does it suck! Seriously I can’t believe how bad it is. It’s all in the details, the things you only see once it’s on your system. Here’s just a starter of shit:No fullscreen viewing. That’s right, you cannot view your pictures without toolbars on top and bottom all the fucking time. Fullscreen, the main feature they advertise about iPhoto 11 is actually taken away. And no, i will not use the obnoxious diashow that throws music at me every time I open it! Mailing pictures. Before it was easy and fast. Click on whatever you want to send, Mail.app opens and you choose the size of the pictures and you’re good to go. Not anymore, no sir, because there are templates now and Apple will make sure you goddamn use them. They all look ugly as fuck and most if not all of them will crop your pictures to match the template. And WHAT THE FUCK you can only mail 10 pictures max! What is wrong with the people who developed this? This is unusable even for my mom. Oh and when you actually send your less than ten pictures in a shitty cropped template of your very limited choice you can’t do anything while it’s sending. I was in fullscreen mode and it blocked the computer for several minutes. Well, you can do one thing and that is editing the mail while it’s being sent. Why, Apple? When viewing albums all the flickr exports are displayed as albums as well. Because I exported most events to flickr it’s like mixing the events with the albums. When I click albums I want albums. And stop using this cheesy photo pile look, Apple! EDIT: No zooming in anymore! I don’t even… EDIT: Oh, and one more thing: Exporting now crashes my iPhoto because it’s stuck trying to log on to Flickr. Everytime, without a chance do disable the Flickr issue. EDIT: Just adding a few things that came up in the thread because some of them are affecting a lot more than just the interface. Like “You now can’t remove a mistagged face without there being new possible matches.” “Fails to install at all.” and “Destroyed the whole library by resizing the photos to 300×200.” No more fullscreen “places” editing”I can’t invest more time into this rant for health reasons but basically Apple has ruined iPhoto so utterly I can hardly believe it. And yeah, downgrading is nearly impossible without using a backed up version of the library. I just have the impression that the whole thing was rushed so Steve Jobs can present it himself. I hope he at least knows how bad it is. It’s shit like that Steve, shit like that! It’s not just this fella. The thread is full of complaints equally matched by comments grateful they hadn’t upgraded. It’s one thing for Apple to release a product with that one “missing feature” that’ll keep customers looking forward to its next release, but for a product of this stature to be released and met with this much bad sentiment – you know something isn’t right. This isn’t Antenna Gate, but for photographers and people passionate about their lifetime of photos, it’s probably not far off. Recommendations? If you’re happy with iPhoto ’09 stay where you are. Otherwise, Aperture, Lightroom or Google’s Picasa are solid options. For those of you have already upgraded, Apple’s feedback form is just here. Don’t Miss: Is Apple Looking To Acquire Sony? [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Apple Offers Free iPad Engraving In Time For The Holidays [TNW Apple] Posted: 26 Oct 2010 02:28 AM PDT
The personalised engraving will operate much the same as Apple’s iPod range, allowing customers to choose up to two lines of free text to be laser engraved on the back of the device. When a customer adds an iPad to their Apple shopping cart, the option will be given to customers after they have selected or skipped the purchasing of additional accessories. As AppleInsider states; by engraving your iPad, it becomes a non-returnable item and will also push back the shipping date from “Within 24 hours” to “1-3 business days”. As the Christmas season approaches, the iPad is tipped to be one of this years top-sellers. Apple has made a huge effort to cope with demand for its iPad over the past few months, ramping up production to reduce its supply shortages from what was once a 3 week shipping wait, down to just a day. Analysts have suggested Apple will struggle to cope with demand, an engraving option could help Apple space out deliveries with a longer shipping date.
iPad engraving looks to available on online Apple Stores across the world, will the engraving option make you more willing to buy the highly-regarded Apple tablet device?Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Rumor: Is Apple Looking To Acquire Sony? [TNW Apple] Posted: 26 Oct 2010 01:36 AM PDT
Saturday’s report by Barrons speculated that Apple could be looking to acquire Adobe, Sony and Disney, resulting in a 3% rise in Sony’s stock at one stage on Tuesday. The companies trading volume totalled 17.61 million shares, its highest since the end of July, with shares closing up 0.7%, just a day after the company had surprised markets with its quarterly profit. Not everyone is convinced Apple would complete a full buy-out of Sony. Analysts have predicted a takeover would be shunned by the Japanese, citing the fact that Sony has also been working with Google to compete with Apple’s iPhone smartphone and continues to manufacture high-end computing devices capable of competing with Apple’s line of MacBook and iMac computers. During Apple’s October 18 earnings call, Steve Jobs was asked the question of what the company could do with the staggering $51 billion cash it had accrued. Jobs’ replied:
Whilst it doesn’t confirm Apple will be looking to buy a company of Sony’s stature, it certainly fuels speculation. Sony’s statement “We cannot comment on rumors or speculation” is so lacking (a one sentence statement?) its almost too easy to believe the company has something to hide. Whether the buy-out occurs or it doesn’t, it’s crazy to think just how large Apple has become. A few years ago you would have even entertained the idea that the company would even contemplate the takeover of a corporation the size of Sony.Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Asus chairman on Garmin breakup: “I hope we can be faster than before.” [TNW Asia] Posted: 26 Oct 2010 12:29 AM PDT
While Asus will continue to have to exclusive right to pre-load Garmin navigation in its future phones, Garmin will also be free to sell its software in app stores. “It’s a good strategy for both of us,” Shih was quoted as saying in the Forbes article. That said, Asus was obviously burdened by its previous partnership with Garmin, and the ability to roll out new phones more in-pace with regional and worldwide competitors such as Lenovo and HTC. Without the cumbersome Garmin custom Android interface (beyond navigation) Asus will be able to offer both hardware and perhaps just stock Android on its new phones. With the addition of the Eee Pad sometime in the (hopefully) not to distant future along with a new line of phones, Asus may be able to get back some of the mojo that it has lost as the iPad has threw a gigantic wrench into the netbook market – Asus’ bread and butter – this year (of course, Asus wasn’t alone in taking a hit). Asus is developing software at the moment to offer cloud-based services for owners of multiple Asus devices, and according to Forbes, “has already reorganized its engineers so that its phone and tablet teams can collaborate more closely.” The first phone that the Taiwan based manufacturer will produce will probably be a TD-SCDMA Android phone for China Mobile for early 2011. Of course, Asus is also considering naming the new line of phones – you guessed it – the Eee Phone.Forbes [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Annoyed by Group Chat in Facebook? Here’s how to disable it. [TNW Social Media] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 09:44 PM PDT Back when Facebook launched the revamped groups, many of us (TNW included) were pretty excited. Though the initial fervor has died down somewhat, Groups are still going strong and continue to annoy people who haven’t been able to use their Facebook chat since the introduction. However, in response to a massive user push (and apparently a thread on Quora), Facebook has given us the ability to opt out of Group Chat just by going to your Edit Settings button on a group’s page. So, instead of being a blanket response to all of your groups, you’re able to control who you get chats from and who you don’t. So here’s your two-step process, just in case you can’t find what we’re referring to:
Found any other interesting ways to work with Facebook Groups? We’d love to hear about them. Let us know in the comments. Tip of the hat to ReadWriteWeb [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| GoNabIt Sets Up Shop in Amman [TNW Middle East] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 09:30 PM PDT
With this recent expansion GoNabIt Amman marks the 4th city in the Middle East with Group Discount deals which came as a quick followup to GoNabIt Beirut. GoNabIt is the first to arrive in Amman, but I guarantee it won’t be the last. The fact Amman is turning into (if not already) the region’s ICT hub, online e-commerce based businesses shouldn’t have a hard time convincing people to go online, the challenge really lies in getting Jordanian money out of their notoriously price-aware pockets. Check out the first deal, I’m personally not a spa going kinda guy. How about you people in Amman, care for a Swedish massage?
It’s also been brought to my attention that in my latest post on Falafel Startups I made a terribly misinformed speculation regarding the number of Nabs sold by this startup to the date of the post (last week). In that post I mentioned Cobone.com had sold in 2 Dubai deals more than GoNabIt’s entire list of nabs in all 3 cities. And although I hate saying this, I was wrong. It appears the people from GoNabIt haven’t been displaying all of their nabs online after all, so we contacted Dan Stuart Founder and CEO of GoNabIt who gave us the exact numbers to date, and I must say they’re quite impressive. Since their launch back in May: GoNabIt has provided 165 deals, saving it’s nabbers AED 2,000,000. This happened by selling almost 12,000 vouchers in 8,000 transactions. Meaning every user is buying for themselves and a friend on average every other nab. They have however missed 6.2% GoNabIt deals that didn’t follow through due to the lack of interest from the minimum number of required users, so they definitely have room to improve.Image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| PayPal iPhone app adds push notifications, local merchant search [TNW Apps] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 07:44 PM PDT PayPal has just released version 3.0 of its iPhone app, with push notifications and local merchant search. The eBay owned company has been rapidly iterating its app, and with good reason – features such as check scanning are obviously a hit among users. You can now set up push notifications for whenever you send or receive money, make a purchase, or receive a request for money. The app says that push notifications will not work on a jailbroken device or if you iPod Touch is in sleep mode.
The apparently still in beta “PayPal Local” is described in the app as:
Unfortunately, nothing came up within 30 miles when we shared our location with the app, but we weren’t in a large city when testing. The categories include: Food, Gas, Cafe, Drugstore, Supermarket, Entertainment, Retail, Services and Other. This is a very interesting move by PayPal and in a way hits at Yelp, Google and in the future Apple, by not only offering local search (if it in fact works) but also closing the loop of payments. Of course, those merchants have to accept PayPal or Bling, but if you have a PayPal debit card as well, it won’t really matter if you walk into a place that doesn’t let you pay with your phone.
The latest release, which just hit the Apple App Store within the last hour, also adds the following features:
Note: This post has been updated. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| iPhoto ’11 Users Reporting Cases of Photo Libraries Being Deleted [TNW Apple] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 07:31 PM PDT Anyone with a hefty photo collection dating back years will understand how serious an issue this potentially is. A number of users who have upgraded to iPhoto ’11 are reporting that their photo libraries (im some cases just a select number of albums) have been deleted. Thanks to back-up services like time machine, many have been able to retrieve the albums but for others their photos are seemingly gone for good.
There are enough reports of this same issue on blogs and Apple discussion forums for it not to be simply a one off case. Some less sympathetic users blame the users, claiming that this isn’t Apple’s fault but rather something all these users must be doing wrong. Apple blogger John Gruber says “If you don't have good backups you will eventually lose something precious.” I however side with another forum poster who says “it’s lame when you attempt to blame the user. The upgrade process should be smart enough to know that something has gone wrong during the upgrade and to restore the library to its original condition.” We’ll be keeping an eye on this story but needless to say maybe think twice about upgrading to iPhone ’11 for the time being or at the very least make sure you’re backed up. CNet also offers some tips, particularly for users upgrading from iPhoto ’09 that may help smoothen the process. We’ve contacted Apple for comment and will report back if/when we hear from them. See also: iPhone Security Bug allows calls on locked iPhone [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| iPhone security bug allows calls on locked phones [TNW Apple] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 07:10 PM PDT
The exploit works when the phone in question is locked, meaning that even if you passcode protect your phone it remains open to the bug. This has been confirmed across various sources, and has been reported to Apple. The exploit works on both jailbroken and stock iPhones. The security hole stems from the ability to make an fake emergency call, then hit the sleep button while on said call, the action of which will then serve you the device’s contact list. From there it is possible to initiate a phone call. Upon its termination you will be returned to the locked screen. Some users are also reporting that they are able to access email on their devices alongside the phone contact list, leaving another set of information open for compromise with the security hole in place. For a more detailed breakdown of how to get past the iPhone’s security please go here; we are not inclined to spread the formal details farther than required for awareness. What should you do? Update your iPhone as frequently as possible over the coming week to ensure that when Apple does roll out a fix your phone will catch the patch quickly. When Apple does release the update, we will alert you of it. Until then, hold onto your iPhone with a tighter grip.MacStories, Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| YouTube Tip: Press 1, 2, 3 to jump to 10%, 20%, 30% of the video you are watching [TNW Lifehacks] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 05:50 PM PDT
Neat little tip via Reddit. While watching a YouTube video type 1, 2, 3 etc. and you’re taken to 10%, 20%, 30% of the video. Sadly it doesn’t work in full-screen nor on embedded videos. Google is known for including these neat little features into its products and patiently waiting for users to discover them. The last one that comes to mind is playing Snake while watching YouTube videos. Anyhow, try it out. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| NoteWagon: The Ultimate Extension of the Knowledge Economy? [TNW Canada] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 05:12 PM PDT
It’s fair to say the learning how to take good notes in class might be one of the most important skills you learn in school. Good notes in class turn into good notes in meetings, conferences, or researching topics on websites. Understanding how to absorb and synthesize on the fly is a hard thing to master. Being able to end up with notes that aren’t only cogent, but useful later on, is even harder. It’s also fair to say that some of us are better note takers than others. I’ve always thought I was pretty good at taking notes, but my notes weren’t terribly useful to anyone else. I use a lot of abbreviations, doodles, drawings, and thought bubbles (almost mind maps at times) to capture my thoughts. But what if you’re really good at taking notes? What if you’re the person everyone wants to borrow from because you synthesize the ideas that were taught? Shouldn’t that be worth something? Sure you let your friends look at and borrow your notes when you study together, but the rest of the school? See this is where I think NoteWagon might be onto something. Here’s how it works. You sign up and you top up your account with cash for tokens. The payments are transacted through PayPal and the token costs break down like this:
With these tokens different kinds of notes cost varying amounts of tokens:
What do you earn? A little less than it costs to buy tokens (good model I think):
Is this a good idea? Yes, I think it is. My gut reaction was that NoteWagon would just let students slack off. As I thought about it, however, if one of the most important skills that you can have in the knowledge economy is how well you absorb and convey information clearly, then learning and earning this skill in school might not be a bad thing.Source Techvibes, Photo credit: Flickr [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| No custom ringtones allowed on Windows Phone 7 [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 04:50 PM PDT
Whether that will have a strong impact on sales or not (we are guessing no), it is an interesting last minute revelation. We noted before that Windows Phone 7 does have some feature gaps that perhaps lend a hand to the idea that at the last minute a few corners had to be cut to ship Windows Phone 7 on time. Not that this is surprising or all that detrimental to the platform as it is easily remedied with a later software update, but it does point to the urgency that Windows Phone 7 is operating under. PocketNow took the time to run thought the ringtone situation, and as it turns out, some carriers are adding ringtones to the mix to spruce up what Microsoft put together. To get an idea of what is up for use, check out the video: Given that this is just about the worst thing that we have heard about the phones since they launched, you have to give Microsoft a few points. Are you going to get one of the phones? [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running! [TNW Shareables] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 04:28 PM PDT I was born in 1985 and I wouldn’t lay my hands on a PC until 10 years later. In that same 1985 though, the first mass market consumer laptop was released by Toshiba and it was called the T1100. Now you may think that it was a piece of crap and to today’s standards it most certainly is but it can still have a sense of humor:
Ah, you can’t read German? It asks to “be patient, because it isn’t that young anymore”. The specs on this beauty? 256KB of RAM and a 4.77 MHz Intel Processor made your computing dreams come to life and just like the Macbook Air of today it didn’t have a regular Hard Drive. Instead it supported floppy disks and weighed in at a whopping 4.1 Kilograms. Pricing was set at $1899,- not bad if you ask me, it could have made me the coolest newborn around the block.In the mood to right [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Microsoft Ramps Up Investment in Australian Software Economy [TNW Australia] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 04:13 PM PDT
A couple of weekends ago, Microsoft was a key sponsor of the Community driven Startup Camp Sydney 4 and featured Developer Evangelist Catherine Eibner sitting on the final judging panel. This is not the first supporting role Microsoft has played in the Startup community lately. Their BizSparkprogram, which is targeted at early growth-stage Startups has been gaining momentum, both overseas and here in Australia. In the last few months they've run 2 free technology focused start up events – one based on Microsoft's Azure Platform, the other around Windows Phone 7. In traditional startup camp/weekend style both of these events gave participants an opportunity to build applications over a weekend, hear from technical and business experts as well as pitch their business and idea to Investors. There were also prizes offered on the day. Outside of the usual benefits of focusing for a weekend on developing a startup, meting other startup community members and practicing your pitching skills, the fact that Microsoft is running these camps as part of their worldwide BizSpark program means participants can get widespread visibility. For instance BizSpark member Buzz Numbers (who we wrote about recently) was runner up at the Sydney based Azure Cloud Camp and went on to win the 2010 AIIA Startup of the year. For those who missed the last 2 camps, and for those outside of Sydney and Melbourne, the good news is that there are more events coming up all around Australia. First up, there's a Brisbane event focused on Windows Phone 7 on the 12-14th of November followed by an Azure cloud-focused event 3 weeks later in Perth on the 3 – 5th of December. You can find out more about the upcoming BizSpark Australia events here. As we said at the start, while Microsoft has been a non-participant in the local tech startup scene in the past, it's great to see them starting to be more present and doing it in a way that is startup focused. — img src =”Digibarn“[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google replaces Chrome 6 with Chrome 7 in record time [TNW Google] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 03:33 PM PDT
The last time that we talked about Chrome, Chrome 5 was the de facto version, being in use by 90+% of Chrome users. Over the past few days, Chrome 7 has been under rapid rollout to the Chrome users of the world. Time since that last post? Around two and a half months, from August 12th to today, October 25th. That means that in less than 90 days Google finished testing a new full number version of Chrome, launched it, completed testing another full number version, and has nearly finished rolling it out to millions upon millions of computers. Can you spell fast turn around? In fact, it’s even faster than that if you subscribe to the developer channel; I have been using Chrome 8 for at least a week now. Even more, the Chrome release cycle seems to be accelerating at least for the moment. Take a look at the pertinent data, Chrome 6 is the Orange line:
See how short the orange line’s reign at the top was? That tangerine line is its replacement. What other version seems to have had a similarly short life? The closest seems to be the reddish brown Chrome 4. Chrome 4 lasted roughly from January 25 (the first day it began to explode as Google shunted users over), to March 17th (when Google began to roll users over to Chrome 4.1). Chrome 4 to Chrome 4.1 is generally treated as a whole number release (even according to Wikipedia, which is never incorrect), giving Chrome 4 just 1 month and 20 days in use. Chrome 6 lasted from just September 3rd to October 19th, a full 1 month and 16 days until Chrome 7, not Chrome 6.1, was rolled out. All in all, Chrome 6 was the shortest release in recent memory of Chrome development (treating Chrome 4.1 as a full release or not). What could it mean? At a minimum, it shows how dedicated Google is to keeping Chrome fresh. Even more, take a look at Chrome market share which is on a steady incline the whole graph that we have in front of us, which seems to be just short of a year. So long Chrome 6, we barely new ye. Hello future Chrome, and welcome. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google faces another privacy lawsuit; this time from California. [TNW Google] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 03:03 PM PDT  Google has had its share of problems, lately. From instances with street view cars to information gathering and picture taking, the search company has had a lot of explaining to do. And explain it did, as well as taking steps to correct the mistakes. Apparently, though, Google has another lawsuit to contend with, this time in its home state of California. Class-action law firm Edelson McGuire LLC has formed a class action suit against Google for practices that it describes as “illegally sharing the search queries of its users with third-parties”. The firm makes some other, rather strong accusations as well to back up their case:
Of course, it will be quite some time before we hear any firm decision from the courts. You can almost certainly bet that even if found liable, Google will appeal the decision. We’ll be keeping you updated. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| 11 Social Media and Technology Books You HAVE To Read [TNW Social Media] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 02:57 PM PDT We spend so much of our time online reading short snippets of information about our industry that sometime we forget to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Reading books is a great way to get some extra insight in to your industry especially in to one as new as social media. I've selected 11 books below that I've read and although they cover different levels of the industry and come at it from different angles they are all well worth a read. If you are new to the industry or trying to find your feet then I'd order a selection of these and get your head buried in to them. There is so much waffle online when it comes to our industry that I really can't recommend enough that you get offline (Or even better get a Kindle and download them all immediately) and start reading some of these books about social media. Here is my list of 11 books about social media that you should get stuck in to today… Re-Work by 37 SignalsThese guys are a small software company who make big profits and think very differently about business. The book is short and to the point and really gets you throwing all conventional business ideas out the window. You don't have to be in the software business to appreciate what these guys are talking about or even in internet business of any sort, their advice just makes sense. The main point that they have in the book is not to think about getting too big before you need to, not trying to grow too fast and generally treating your business as something that you love rather than something that you just build up and try and sell as quick as you can. It's a really quick read (You'll finish it in less than a day) but you'll find yourself going back to it all the time for little bits of advice and inspiration long after you have actually finished reading the book.
SocialnomicsThis really is one of the best books around written by Erik Qualman. You probably recognize his name or the title of the book from the series of videos that he has made to help promote the book. One of the smartest thinkers in this new medium you'll also find his blog excellent reading. What you'll find in this book are some great practical examples of social media at work in the real world as well as Qualman making the argument about how it will shape everything businesses do in the future.
What Would Google Do?This is a fantastic read about one of the biggest and most innovative companies of our generation. Not only does it go in to some of the main reasons why Google have become the Internet giant that they are today but it also looks at some of the logic that goes in to the business decisions that Google make. Rather than a "how to" business book this is more of a high level view behind some of the business thinking that changed industries that Google are involved in.
WikinomicsThis books looks at how companies in the last 10 years or so are using alternative technologies like crowdsourcing, open source technology and of course wikis to change the way they operate and become more effective. Although the book is over 3 years old at this stage it really caught the early wave of innovation and sharing online using a whole raft of new tools that we now take for granted and the text within the book is as relevant to us all now as it was back then.
The Whuffie FactorThis is a great guide for businesses and individuals looking at embracing new ways of marketing online and is written in an informal style which is far more forgiving that some of the other books on this list. There are plenty of examples in the book of companies who have succeeded but also some great examples of companies who jumped in head first and got it all wrong. The main thing that you will hopefully get out of the book is how to get your word of mouth referrals rocking for your business and generally create a positive feeling around your business online. What I like most about this book is that the author clearly has lots of experience in the field and is not scared to share that experience with the readers.
CrowdsourcingOne of the most popular buzz words in the last couple of years in the online world has been crowdsourcing but surprisingly the word itself has only been around since 2006. The book really shows that although crowdsourcing has been around for a long time in different formats it is really the power of the internet that has brought it to the fore and shown what can be done with it. The book shows how crowdsourcing can solve many of the problems that we have in life today including marketing and creative issues but the one area where the book does fall down slightly in my opinion is that it doesn't show enough of the negative issues around crowdsourcing and it paints it as the solution to nearly everything without taking in great detail about many of the drawbacks
The Facebook EffectAt this stage you will probably have seen the movie about Facebook called "The Social Network" and the film is loosely based on this book. Very loosely actually! This is a great insight in to the key players and the journey that they all went on in the early days of Facebook and how it become the huge power that it is today. what you'll find amazing is how the story unfolds form a dormitory in Harvard and grows and grows as the business evolves but just how unorganized and chaotic it was in the early days. What makes this such a great read in my eyes is that all of the events takes place very much in recent history (about 5 years ago) and you would never think that the main man at the center of it all, Mark Zuckerberg, would end up being worth billions of dollars and wielding so much influence in the world today. We all spend so much time on the world's biggest social network and it is such an important part if our daily lives that we probably should all read this brilliant book about just how it was built.
Viral Loop : HowIf ever there was a book that did exactly what it said on the cover this is it. The idea of Viral loops that we know so many businesses around the world are trying to recreate have been around for some time and this book does a great job of not only explaining some of the popular ones that we see on the internet today but also many of the original viral loops from businesses that we would never have thought of from the past. The author does a great job of setting the scene with some of the inventors of viral businesses models before moving on to how they work and finally giving you what you had picked the book up for in the first place…how to implement them in to your own business yourself. Reading this book doesn't mean that you will be able to automatically create a viral loop for your own business but it will give you a better understanding of the term viral and what you might have to do to make it work yourself.
TribesSeth Godin could have has any number of books on this list and although he is supposedly not publishing regular books any more he has written enough content to keep us all going for some time. Godin is always held up as one of the great marketers of our time and somebody how thinks differently about the world around him. Tribes for me is his best work and focuses in on not surprisingly Tribes of people or customers that can be built up around a person or business. As Godin says himself Tribes are… "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea". The book doesn't actually have chapters but instead is based around ideas on how you can build or lead your own Tribes.
The Long TailThis is a very common expression that Chris Anderson the author of this book first coined in a Wired magazine in 2004 and later evolved in to this entire book. It essentially talks about large companies like Amazon and iTunes who sell large volumes broken down in to many different categories rather than a couple of large products that used to be the way. The book can get very technical at times and delve in to numbers and more advanced language that might put many off but as a book with ideas that define an entire business model it really is an excellent read. The main message that comes across in the book is how thanks to the internet all our buying habits have modified and we live in a society where we get things instantly and by applying filters and detailed search we are no longer bothered by mass market goods that we just don't need. The Cluetrain ManifestoThough written in 1997, before we had the likes of Facebook and Twitter this could easily have been written today and be just as relevant to social media marketing. The Cluetrain Manifesto was a pivotal book and a must-read for anyone involved in marketing or communications in any shape or form. The book looks at the way that the internet has changed communication and the impact this has for companies. It looks at the need for modern organisations to be transparent and fluid, with traditional organisational structures no longer being as relevant as they were. The central theme throughout the book is that every market is a conversation – a powerful and challenging concept at the time. Filled with expert analysis and case studies, if you haven't read this, go out and buy a copy today! Check out the original site here, which looks exactly as it did when the book launched,
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| The 25 Largest Brand Facebook Pages With Most Likes [TNW Social Media] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 02:32 PM PDT Facebook just keeps growing as one of the most important platforms on the web for brands to engage with and with that in mind we thought we would share the 25 biggest Facebook pages belonging to brands. The list includes brands only and doesn’t include pages belonging to applications or celebrities. You’ll recognize the biggest brands on the list and to a large extent you would expect that most of their numbers are coming through pure advertising although there are some that don’t even seem to be actively pushing their pages and the growth has been largely pushed by fans (lucky them!). I’ve pretty much left tons of music bands, TV shows and pages that would probably grow organically without the need for advertising and focused on brands and businesses that are engaging through Facebook as a key marketing strategy. Starbucks (16,032,409)Always a high profile brand on the world stage Starbucks were never slow to embrace this medium and have excelled on Facebook with innovative campaigns and a large amount of engagement with their loyal customers. Coca Cola (15,095,389)The masters of branding were actually slow to market with 2 fans setting up their Facebook page for them before the world’s biggest soft drinks brand took it over from them leaving them with control of the page. Lots of great innovation and smart campaigns here as you would expect. Page Oreo (12,085,126)These tasty biscuits have a bit of a cult following all over the world and their Facebook page is no different with some seriously impressive numbers. Constantly changing engagement applications as well as lots of user generated content keep this an exciting place for fans to engage with the brand. Page Skittles (11,508,441)Skittles were early movers in the social media game (you may remember them changing their home page to Twitter stream) and their Facebook page is no different with huge engagement and interaction around this colorful brand. Page Red Bull (10,198,875)Another of the worldwide masters at branding Red Bull have leveraged Facebook in a number of smart ways including as a platform to show off the huge range of alternative sports that they sponsor. Never a page short of content or engagement with fans. Victoria’s Secret (8,429,334)Hard to tell if this page would be more popular with the guys checking out the models or for girls trying to find the latest lingerie. Either way there is lots of content including the ability to see the latest ranges as well as interactive content including Ustream live streaming. Page Disney (8,394,141)One of the most impressive features here is a counter that shows nearly 70 millions likes across the various Disney pages on Facebook as a platform. Great interaction among fans as well as a mixture of looking at classic Disney content and looking forward to new releases. Page Converse All Star (7,366,892)One of the most iconic brands in the world has not been slow to tap in to Facebook and encourages it’s loyal fans to share content and engage with the brand with some interactive apps. Page iTunes (7,071,721)I left plenty of other technology apps, TV shows, bands and movies off the list but included one of the other most important platforms on the web in the list. iTunes keeps you up to date with latest releases and profiles acts with new content and given their huge following here it must often convert directly in to huge amounts of sales. Page MTV (7,043,056)The ultimate youth brand has been close to Facebook since the early days (It tried to buy Facebook a couple of times in the early days) and their content is a perfect fit for a Facebook page that has a loyal and engaged following. Zara (6,063,583)This really is one of the most basic fan pages that you will ever see on Facebook and I can only guess that the most of their growth has been achieved through their loyal fans liking the page. Most activity on the page is kept to the wall with new releases appearing in photos and through the odd video. Page Pringles (5,762,518)This popular snack has also been a high profile brand to engage through social media and their Facebook page features engaging apps, local content as well as constant engagement through the wall with interactive questions and lots of competitions. Page NBA (5,616,388)You would expect one of the largest sports in the USA to have an active presence on Facebook and the NBA does not disappoint. The best feature of their page is that they encourage the fans to shop through their Facebook page and push out special offers which given their huge following you can imagine this is working very well for them. Page Starburst (5,380,056)This is one of the most beautifully designed Facebook pages with a nice clean interface leading you in to lotsof engaging apps and interactive content. Starburst also try and lead you in to their iPhone app through one of the tabs on their Facebook page. Nutella (5,208,281)This is clearly a Facebook page that has mostly been lead by fans with the brand slow to engage but it shows that you don’t always need big fancy apps to engage with consumers on Facebook. Lots of user generated content and wall posts about how much they love the Nutella brand. Page Dr Pepper (5,164,646)Dr Pepper play up the music angle on their page with a couple of interactive maps allowing you to follow the bands they are sponsoring (KISS for example). There are lots of other apps that rotate on this Facebook page and encourage you to share the content with your friends. Page Monster Energy (4,916,536)Monster are not the first energy drink that comes to mind and they are very much up against a giant in Red Bull who we see at the top of this list but in fairness they are making a good effort on Facebook with their content very much aimed at the youth market. Page Addidas Originals (4,804,224)Addidas as you would expect have a good presence on Facebook but it is a shame that a lot of their pages are not in great shape and lead you straight to their website rather than encouraging interaction within Facebook itself. Having said that lots of good content including their ads and some user generated content from fans. Page H&M (4,520,070)Another brand that insists on pushing lots of people over to it’s website rather than keeping them within Facebook but on the upside there are over 5000 photos with a huge range of their range available to browse online. Lots of interactions on the wall including the latest releases as they come out. Page Ferraro Rocher (4,424,751)This seems to be another page that has largely been driven by a cult following among fans around the world of the gorgeous chocolates. Of particular interest are the brilliant fan photos that have been submitted with the chocolates shown off in lots of creative ways. Page McDonalds (3,795,486)When I started making this list I would have been surprised if the world’s biggest fast food chain had not made the list and I’m not surprised to see it here. A great balance on this page of apps that create engagement as well as creative ways in showing off all it’s range with ironically a big focus on the health benefits!
Playstation (3,683,751)With 10s of millions of gamers around the world hardly a surprise to see the first of 2 gaming platforms on the list. Lots of engaging content especially showing off popular games and new up and coming releases. a very engaged audience here. Page Xbox (3,447,690)Another gaming platform and Xbox seem to focus on signing as many people up to their platform as possible with most pages featuring some form of sign up process. Interestingly the pages seems to break down in to smaller areas for different levels of gamers with those pages having far less fans so some sort of custom solution in place here from Facebook. Page Taco Bell (3,399,860)The second fast food brand on the list and the Facebook page is fairly simple with a small focus on photo and video content. Not a huge amount of exciting stuff happening here apart from the ability for people to apply for jobs with Taco Bell. Page Puma (2,712,075)Again most of the landing pages link off to the main Puma site where you can get more info with the content on Facebook focusing on some of their latest video adverts, user photos and the odd app thrown in (none at the moment). Page BMW (2,696,929)The only car brand on the list has a great interactive page with lots of compelling content. You can watch their latest TV channel or submit user generated pictures of your BMW with a staggering 22,000 photos already uploaded to the page this is one very popular and engaging page. Page Blackberry (2,675,387)Lots of interaction here from an interactive counter showing how many fans there are of the page around the world to a simple tab that lets you find the Blackberry page for your local country this is a great example of a global brand using Facebook effectively. The page also includes all the latest news as well as a way of finding your favorite phone. Page Nike (2,481,546)This is one brand that I 100% expected to make the list but I would perhaps have expected to see it a little higher up the charts. As you would expect lots of user generated content but it is a shame to see lots of the pages broken and not fitting in with the new width of Facebook pages which for a brand the size of Nike is just not acceptable. Page |
| iTranslate Gets Translated For The iPad [TNW Apps] Posted: 25 Oct 2010 02:10 PM PDT TNW Quick HitiTranslate, a popular and free translation app for the iPhone, has released an iPad version that offers an alternative to using Google Translate on your tablet. Enjoyed: Free, lots of writing space, spoken translations for some languages, nice screen transitions, swipe to paste, quick translation, share via email, history of phrases translated. Annoyed: Some people most likely be annoyed by the lack of spoken translations for all languages, ability to save to Notepad would be nice, as would a various dictionaries. DetailsReally, there isn’t much more to say about iTranslate than what we mentioned int he “Enjoyed” section above: it’s a native app that is seemingly a sturdy replacement for Google Translate, though of course we can test the app’s translation prowess in all of the languages. We tried English to Mandarin Chinese, and it was reasonably accurate. At any rate, especially for a free app, it’s pretty well done, and we recommend it (just search for iTranslate from your iPad App Store) That said, we’d appreciate any feedback from speakers of other languages about the accuracy of the translation in the comments.
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Unlike many Apple products (ok iPhone 4 aside) iPhoto ’11 has not got off to a good start.
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