Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Macy’s Adds Startup “True Fit” Sizing Technology to its Site”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Macy’s Adds Startup “True Fit” Sizing Technology to its Site”


Macy’s Adds Startup “True Fit” Sizing Technology to its Site

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 05:00 AM PDT

fashion image

Ecommerce sites do a pretty good job of showing how apparel fits models. But for most of us, this isn’t much of a hint about how a piece of clothing would look on our own bodies — or what size we should buy. A startup called True Fit is launching a partnership with Macy’s that aims to solve the problem for its online shoppers.

More people would likely buy clothing online if they could more easily find the right size. Only 10% of the $275 billion of apparel and accessories sold in 2010 were purchased online, according to Sucharita Mulpuru at Forrester Research.

A wide range of attempts at this potentially lucrative feat include shape-shifting robots that change to match a customer’s body measurements, and augmented reality and augmented reality apps that paste a photograph of an item onto the customer’s image.

True Fit’s solution is a bit less dramatic, but it still departs a good deal from the standard practice of simply offering a measurement table for each brand.

“We don't ask you to measure yourself,” says True Fit CEO Bill Adler. “We don't care what you think your measures are or what size you think you are. That's a measurement that's fraught with error.”

Instead, the company asks users to complete a three-step profile in which they select brands and sizes that fit them best, their shape (i.e. is your stomach flat, average, round and high, or round and low?), and their height and weight. It combines this information along with shopping behavior on a site to figure out what is likely to fit. The process is designed to take about three minutes.

After that point, a user’s personalized “True Fit” will show up with every item in the “Denim Finder” on the Macy’s site. It shows users on a five-point scale how suitable an item is for their bodies and recommends a size.

Although True Fit launched in 2006, Macy’s Denim Finder is the first partner site it will run on. What Adler calls a “test kitchen” site has, however, used hundreds of iterations of the technology to sell a minimal selection of apparel. The site has registered 400,0000 users and attracted attention from magazines like Nylon, People and Real Simple.

In the future, it plans to focus on partnerships with more retailers. For users, that means one fit profile that will work on multiple ecommerce sites without adding additional profiles. Which brings the product much closer to Adler’s vision that it is today:

“Just tell me how an item will fit me and what size I should buy,” he says. “Don’t make me do all kinds of interesting new behaviors. Don’t change the way I operate.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, Tasayu Tasnaphun

More About: fashion, macys, retail, shopping

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HTC Admits Security Flaw, Promises a Quick Fix

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:10 AM PDT


After a recent report indicated that HTC’s suite of logging tools leave the door wide open to malicious hackers, who could use the vulnerabilities in the software to gather users’ personal data, HTC admitted that the problem is real.

“In our ongoing investigation into this recent claim, we have concluded that while this HTC software itself does no harm to customers’ data, there is a vulnerability that could potentially be exploited by a malicious third-party application,” says HTC’s public statement on the matter.

HTC claims they don’t know of any users actually being affected by this vulnerability and advises customers to be extra careful when using apps from untrusted sources. As for the patch for the vulnerability, it’s coming after “a short testing period by (HTC’s) carrier partners”.

[via Engadget]

More About: hackers, htc, Mobile, security, smartphone, vulnerability

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iPhone History: The Story So Far [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:56 PM PDT

In a scant few hours now, we’ll dive into chapter five in one of the most compelling stories of our digital-dominated era: The Life And Times of the iPhone. So for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, and even those of you who have (hands up if you remember the ROKR iTunes phone), here’s a recap — courtesy of Thinglink, a startup that makes interactive photos and ads.

Hover over the infographic to reveal pictures, videos and links from iPhone history. (The launch date of each phone is at the top of its screen.) Take note of the chips used in each iteration, and find out more about the real genius behind the iPhone’s design. Wax nostalgic in the comments about your favorite moments. And get ready for a whole new chapter Tuesday morning, whether it’s the iPhone 5, the 4S or both.




More About: apple, infographic, iPhone 5


Artificial Intelligence Is Coming to the iPhone, And It’s Going to Change Everything

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:50 PM PDT

Mashable OP-ED: This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

Let me start off by saying this: Your phone is not suddenly going to gain sentience and become Skynet. However, your phone is about to become a whole lot smarter, thanks to Apple and its new artificial intelligence Assistant.

The hype surrounding Tuesday’s Apple iPhone event is at an all-time high. But most of the hype is focused on the hardware that Apple will announce. What will the iPhone 5 look like? Will there be an iPhone 4S? Will it have 4G capabilities or a bigger screen?

The real star of Tuesday’s show will not be the hardware, though. This event will focus on software, specifically one piece of software that Apple: the iPhone Assistant.

Assistant is the successor to Siri, the iPhone app that helped users with their daily tasks with natural language voice commands. Ask Siri to find a restaurant for you, and it could not only complete your requests, but it could also help you book a reservation. It could grab movie ratings, find you a taxi, perform Google searches and much more. Most of all, it learned from your actions and refined its recommendations accordingly.

The technology that powered Siri was born from SRI’s CALO project, the largest artificial intelligence project in U.S. history. It’s complex technology that linked machine learning to natural language. In other words, it’s technology that made artificial intelligence accessible and useful to the regular person.

Two months after its launch, Apple acquired Siri for more than $200 million.


What Assistant Will Do


On Tuesday, Siri will be reborn as Assistant. And while we have not had a chance to play with Assistant ourselves, we’ve heard amazing things from the people who have used it.

Say you’re in a new city and you’re really craving Chinese. In the past, you might have pulled up the Yelp app, performed a search on Yelp and combed through results. With Assistant, you can say to your iPhone, “Please find me a Chinese restaurant within a mile of my location.”

Instead of searching for the taxi company’s number, Assistant will find it for you. Instead of searching through your apps, Assistant will open up your app and tell the app what you want it to do (we eventually expect APIs that will allow users to directly access their apps via Assistant).

And yes, Assistant will be able to transcribe your texts and perform web searches, much like Google’s Android OS. Assistant will utilize Nuance’s advance voice-recognition technology to accomplish these tasks.

The key though is that Assistant will learn. It will figure out what results you don’t like, what restaurants you frequent, and what people you want to talk to the most. It will adapt to your needs and become more than just a module for voice commands.


What Artificial Intelligence Does to the iPhone


In a great interview on Monday, Siri co-founder Norman Winarsky wasn’t shy to share his thoughts on how Assistant will not only change personal computing but the entire world.

“Make no mistake: Apple's 'mainstreaming' Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event,” Winarsky told 9to5mac. “I'd go so far as to say it is a world-changing event.”

But why is Assistant a “world-changing” event? Winarsky explains further:

“This is real AI with real market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language,” he said. “The PAL (personal assistant software) will get things done, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We're talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.”

Apple plans to change the very way we interact with our phones yet again. Apple already sparked one revolution with touchscreens and another with the App Store. After Tuesday though, it will have introduced a whole new method of interacting with computers: through an artificial intelligence. That is something that will change our fundamental relationship with the devices that sit on our desks and travel with us in our pockets.

Starting Tuesday, we’ll be talking about a new computing revolution.

Lead image courtesy of DreamWorks


What Apple’s iPhone 5 May Look Like



iPhone Evolution




Polish students designed this beauty, going with the curved back look. Found on VeteranGeek.


iPhone News Blog




This early mockup extrapolates from the current iPhone 4 design. It's a clean design -- one we'd be happy to slip into a pocket. Found on the German iPhone News Blog.


Nowhere Else




Those talented French artists at Nowhere Else envision the iPhone 5 having a rounded back, and accompanied this attractive illustration with an entire infographic full of iPhone 5 rumors and speculation.


9-to-5-Mac




On the left is allegedly the iPhone 5 in the hands of someone testing it on a train, and the white phone is allegedly the iPhone 4S, all found by 9-to-5 Mac.


MacRumors




MacRumors' mockup created by CiccareseDesign shows a slim cross section.


Antonello Falcon




Called the "Size Zero iPhone 5," Antonello Falcon's flight of fancy has a 4.6-inch screen, curved glass edges, a thin 8.4mm cross-section and a soft-touch Home button. Perhaps this is more akin to an iPhone 6. Found on VeteranGeek.


This is My Next




This mockup from ThisIsMyNext has been floating around for a while, but it latched on early to the teardrop-shaped cross-section and larger screen.


Roman Sima




Called the "Glossy iPhone 5," this ultra-lightweight design features a plastic cover. Here's Roman's website.


MacRumors




From MacRumors, this design echos the iPhone 4, but thinner.


Piotr Spalek




When iDeals China leaked a shot of a 4-inch screen that was alleged to belong to an iPhone 5, Polish designer Piotr Spalek put together a mockup that matched up with the screen.

More About: apple, Assistant, features, Opinion, siri


Wheelz Lets College Kids Rent Their Rides for Cash

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:11 PM PDT


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Wheelz

Quick Pitch: Wheelz is a campus car sharing platform connecting students with cars to students who need them.

Genius Idea: Using Facebook as an identity service to provide car owners with social assurance.


Every broke college student has dreamt up a few harebrained schemes to make a few extra bucks. Now, starving students have a potentially quick and lucrative — and better yet, entirely legal — way to cash in on the idle time of their vehicles, thanks to new startup Wheelz.

Wheelz, launched last week, is a peer-to-peer car sharing service structured around college and university communities. The startup installs its propriety DriveBox hardware into students’ vehicles and then lets car-less student drivers rent them for an hourly or daily fee.

Borrowers, over the age of 18, sign up with their university email address and Facebook account to then find and reserve cars by web or iPhone app. They can also unlock a Wheelz ride via the startup’s iPhone app (or a supplied RFID card) as well.

“You have access to vehicles on demand,” Wheelz founder and CEO Jeff Miller explains. “You can make the reservation and you can go — immediately.”

Car owners set the prices and earn 60% of rental fees. The rest goes to Wheelz with Wheelz splitting its proceeds between insurance costs and padding the company’s coffers. And Wheelz backs every renter — after passing a DMV check — with a $1 million insurance policy that kicks in as soon as he or she gets behind the wheel of another student’s car.

It’s a system not wholly dissimilar from Getaround’s car sharing service, but it’s one designed around the social dynamics inherent to colleges — and to Facebook.

“Peer-to-peer commerce requires that you create trust ecosystems,” Miller says. “It made the most sense to launch within existing communities where trust and affinity are abundant. Colleges and universities have that in spades.

To add an additional layer of trust, Wheelz requires that its users have Facebook accounts. The startup says the Facebook account acts as “social insurance.”

Wheelz, says Miller, is already receiving a warm reception from students at Stanford. In total, though, the young startup has a humble fleet of just 20 vehicles.

“There’s a big pipeline of folks that want to get [DriveBoxes] installed … we’re on track to have a very big and sizable fleet at Stanford,” Miller says.

Look for Wheelz to roll out to additional campuses in the months ahead,and to really put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, in 2012.

Wheelz will no doubt appeal to cash-poor college students (and freshmen without their own rides). But, will mom and dad appreciate it when their child starts passing around his car for profit — especially if they foot the bill for the car in the first place? Perhaps, just as with most things that happen outside the classroom at college, it’s best they didn’t know.

Wheelz is based in Atherton, California. The startup has raised $2 million in seed funding.


Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark


Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: bizspark, car sharing, spark-of-genius, Wheelz

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2012 Election: 3 Digital Platforms Poised to Change the Conversation

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 07:24 PM PDT


While not as sexy as politician elbow jabbing, the race to develop winning political platforms for the 2012 U.S. election cycle is a hot contest among strategists and programmers.

Following its win in 2008, Blue State Digital is the shop to beat. The company built the dynamic My.BarackObama.com and enabled the president's campaign to integrate CRM, fundraising, email and other communications, along with organizing tools for their field program. The historic results were so revolutionary that it has since been copied by other candidates, issue groups and consumer marketers, leading to the clogging of countless inboxes with three years worth of cookie-cutter calls to action.

Top BSD execs have returned to lead President Obama's re-election digital strategy, but the market they face now has changed drastically. We've seen the country's political atmosphere shift as Republicans ramp up, Tea Party organizers forge grassroots support, Independents search for post-partisan ground, and Democrats vacillate over campaign promises kept and broken. Consequently, the tools that fuel these political movements have adapted to serve a more complex electorate.

Across the political spectrum, creative solutions will have notable implications for the upcoming election, not to mention for issue-based organizers and lobbyists post-election. Digital strategists will incorporate social gaming tactics in order to mobilize casual activists, and will draw on the OK Cupid! matching system to circumvent partisan differences. They will build and leverage massive open source networks. The new tools currently being developed have the potential to establish a strengthened, more engaged public in the long term.

The question, once again, is how these tools will lead to a dramatic shift in the way politics is fundamentally practiced in the modern people-powered electorate.

One thing is certain: Hiring or emulating BSD this time around will not magically catapult a candidate to Barackstar status. Other groups have stepped up.

"Hats off to BSD. They have a product that's used by massive numbers of people, and obviously won a consequential election in 2008," says Patrick Ruffini, partner at Engage, one of Washington D.C.'s top conservative digital strategy firms, and a veteran of the past three presidential races. "Since then the web is becoming more social, as is activism online."


1. Multiply


To serve the social web's activists better, Ruffini and his team at Engage have developed a platform called Multiply, one of numerous competitors that will play a role in shaping the future of Republican digital organizing and certainly the upcoming election. Ruffini describes Multiply as a "platform based around social gaming." By targeting existing networks like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, where communities of both dedicated and casual activists already exist, Multiply uses game mechanics to incentivize increasingly difficult actions. For example, in a test-drive this past summer, users were asked to do things ranging from the simple (sharing a news story in their feed) to the much heavier (making a donation or phone banking). Multiply awarded badges, points and exclusive rewards to these participants, who might otherwise never have provided their email addresses to a campaign website or taken an action beyond clicking Facebook's "Like" button.

"By gamifying the pieces, one of the things we found was increased engagement in the actions they were asked to do," he says. "When prompted to take the next easiest action, we found a lot of people went through that process – up to the point where about 35% of users had completed all the actions."

Tools like Multiply may allow Republicans to prove that they, too, can pack a digital punch in a presidential race. However, tools don't operate in isolation. It wasn't MyBO alone that made the 2008 Democratic party successful, but the way it facilitated spreading then-Senator Obama's popular, hopeful message. Now that we're faced with a terse, highly partisan and divided Congress, many of the first-time and moderate participants from 2008 have banded together in a deliberate effort to eschew party lines. They, too, have tools.


2. Ruck.us


One of the hotly anticipated launches of the political season, Ruck.us emerged Sept. 21 as an organizing platform designed for political independents, the apolitical, and bipartisan buddies. Co-founder and chief strategy officer Raymond Glendening says Ruck.us allows users to work directly on the issues they care about with like-minded individuals, whether they are liberal or conservative. Visitors to the site are prompted to respond to user-generated questions (yes, based on the OK Cupid! system) about their positions on a variety of issues. Subsequently they are placed in a "ruck" where they can communicate, organize and take action with others who share their views.

"You don't have to be a slave to partisan labels," Glendening says. "It's crazy that with the growth of technology we still only have two choices for politics. It's unnecessary to have to settle for black and white options. If we can change the culture of how people communicate and make this an extra outside-the-party thing, political discourse will get better."

The site is just out of beta, so it's too soon to predict if Ruck.us users will still align themselves along traditional party platforms, or whether this even matters. "There is a tendency among people to say, 'Can't we organize around non-partisan issues rather than through the party?'" says Ruffini. "It's a delicate balancing act, because most people who are active are either one way or the other. Will social media change that? It's a broader question."

Veteran organizers who do believe in the essential nature of ideological party allegiances seem to be grappling with another strategically imperative question going into 2012: Are we really going to reinvent the wheel every election cycle under the auspices of a new candidate?

When Obama took office in 2008, he had a heady 13 million users in his network, which were turned over to the renamed Organizing for America as part of the Democratic National Committee. (For an exhaustive resource on this controversial move, see this TechPresident report.) Many have questioned whether these users would have been better served had they been funneled to groups that tackled specific issues, as opposed to being united around the re-election of a candidate.


3. Salsa Labs


Today, digital organizers are still grappling with the repercussions of the Obama network decision, and looking to avoid setting a precedent. Democrats divided over whether the Obama presidency has been a success will need to determine which tactics will rally voters to the ballot box next November. For example, climate or same-sex marriage activists could argue that Team Obama has dropped the ball on their issues. Therefore, they'll need to communicate in a nuanced way to sell their bases on a second go-around.

In 2008, this was very expensive. Now it might not be.

April Pedersen is the co-founder of the progressive-leaning Salsa Labs, which just raised $5 million in funding to expand and develop its existing platform. The community now consists of more than 2,000 groups and reaches about 50 million people. Her organization's objective is to find a way to drive down significant costs of models like BSD to be effective and scalable.

Salsa Labs seeks to accomplish that goal using Salsa Market, an open source developer's resource that allows third parties to take advantage of apps and build new ones.

"It puts our users in the driver's seat," Pedersen says. "It takes the SalesForce app exchange model and applies it to our sectors. It allows for more advanced donor management, CRM and helps take organizing to next level."

Some fantasize that progressive groups using the Salsa platform will be able to band together as necessary to take advantage of the full breadth of the network. However, Pedersen says there are some challenges to that vision since the user data belongs to the individual groups. The company is investigating how to move forward.


As with all tools, the substance of the candidates, dialogue, ideas and world events will be significant drivers behind the results. However, each of these approaches to user engagement offer a new way to empower voters and activists, making 2012 a cycle of tremendous potential.

Says Ruck.us' Glendening: "In the long-range view, I hope we're a piece of what changes the way politics is run in this country."

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CostinT

More About: 2012 election, contributor, features, platform, Politics, Social Media

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Startup Provides Platform For Smart Political Debate, with a Secretary of State

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:02 PM PDT


Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has contributed opinion pieces to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Now you’ll find her in a less established forum, defending a recent op-ed on a brand new online debate platform called PolicyMic.

The site, which co-founders Christopher Altchek and Jake Horowitz launched in June, aims to give people — twentysomethings especially — a place for intelligent discussion of current events.

“After you leave college, there's not a good place to debate current events,” Altchek says. “We started thinking about how everybody gets their current events from news sites, but nobody actually engages there … [Twitter and Facebook] are both great platforms, but they’re not built for meaningful exchange of ideas. On Twitter you are very restricted, and Facebook is hard to have back-and-forth debates that don’t get lost.”

PolicyMic removes discussions about the news away from news sites — where commenters are not exactly known for their insightful comments — and into a community that is somewhat self-curated. When a user first signs up, he or she is limited to 300 characters for their articles. Receiving more “Mics” (the equivalent of a Facebook “Like”) on his or her comments moves the user up the character-count-allotment totem poll. After 150 Mics, the user becomes a “pundit” and can publish articles of any length on the site. Pundits can also challenge other users to debates. So far, 450 of 1500 users have reached this level.

The site also brings in professors and other thought leaders to write guest articles. Sometimes these authors host “office hours” in which they discuss their articles with users. In Rice’s case, she responded to one question regarding the op-ed she published in the New York Times.

PolicyMic is not the only startup that’s set out to create a platform for intelligent discussion. TwoSides, Debate.org and Debatewise.com are just a few others. The general tone of the conversation on most of these sites, however, makes it unlikely that Rice will make an appearance.

PolicyMic has a big advantage: Its co-founders are well connected to thought leaders and intelligent young people who are aligned with both sides of the political aisle. Altcheck used to work for the Bush administration. Horowitz, who shares an alma mater (Stanford) with Rice, was a reporter for left-leaning advocacy site Change.org.

Together they’ve recruited the sort of community that will vote insightful comments to the top of the site and push down the crazies — producing quality free commentary. The question is whether such a system can scale.

“We do get the random crazy people who sign up for our site,” Altchek says, “but they get really frustrated because they have a small comment limit and nobody is giving them mics and allowing them to move up. They usually stop commenting.”

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

More About: Condoleezza Rice, PolicyMic

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HOW TO: Reduce the Spam in Your Inbox, Mailbox and Voicemail

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:45 PM PDT


Pretty much anyone — man, woman or child — has at some point received an email telling them they weren’t sufficiently endowed. This is spam, and it sucks.

Spam is one of the Internet constants that comes with being a digital citizen, but it extends into our analog lives as well. Have an email account, mailbox or phone number? You’ve probably received unsolicited or unwanted messages and promotions from magazines, companies, strangers, etc. hoping to grab your attention.

There are dozens of origin stories for how “spam” got its name. Spam was first the name of a food product better known for being gross than for being “ham.” It got a bad reputation for it’s bland taste, cheap price and presumably low-quality contents. Some say it’s those qualities which made “spam” the apt nickname for the low-quality, nondescript messages that fill up our inboxes — digital and otherwise.

It has since taken on several less-than-kind acronyms such as “Sales Promotion and Marketing,” “Short Pointless Annoying Messages” and “Stupid Person’s AdvertiseMents.”

So how do you get rid of the spam in your life? We’ve got some quick tips on how to cut down your email spam, junk mail and unsolicited phone calls.


1. Email




Filters: The easiest and simplest way to get rid of spam is to pay somebody else to do it. Filters are mostly effective for email spam, though they're still not 100% accurate. Filters have a tendency to miss craftily-worded spam or even send some of your important messages to the trash. Big companies like Symantec have inbox-filtering software for a price.

There are also free options such as Spamfighter which do a comparable job. Be forewarned, while the pay services usually include more options and customer support, simply paying for software doesn't make it more effective than some free alternatives. Also, these tools often only work for domain email clients, so if you're trying to clean up your Gmail or Hotmail account, these might not be the best bet.

DIY: Using a cloud-based email service like Gmail is both a blessing a curse. Most online email accounts have some sort of spam filter already built into them but these filters are hard to upgrade or supplement with other services.

Fortunately, these filters can often "learn" what is spam through manual use. Over time, your inbox should naturally get better at figuring out what is legit email and what is another Nigerian Prince asking for money. Online email services usually have a spam button that you can click to report junk emails and a "not spam" button to correct false positives.

You can also create your own spam filters to get the best results. Gmail users, for example, can create filters for their incoming mail that flags or deletes emails that contain lewd content or common spam keywords. This strategy can backfire if, for example, a friend sends you a joke about Viagra or legitimately needs you to send money to Nigeria (for a non-profit, perhaps). These messages will automatically get flagged. To help, Google has a "test" feature that lets you test-run a filter before you apply it so you can better fine tune your results.

You can also try setting up a spamtrap -- a nondescript email account used simply to accrue and therefor identify spam email. Spamtraps only work if the address isn't used or given to contacts. That way, any emails sent to the account can be reasonably called spam and filtered. This is one way -- among others -- that many professional services identify spam for their clients.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Garrettc


2. Snail Mail




How do you keep junk mail out of your actual, real-life inbox? This one is actually a little easier since it's much harder to anonymously solicit through the post office. If you're sick of getting catalogs and credit card offers, you can put your info into national "Do Not Mail" registries such as DMAChoice. DMAChoice was developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help manage the public's mail. Others, like DoNotMail are privately run.

While most services (especially ones backed by the organization that sends the stuff) have a pretty good batting average, they aren't guaranteed to stop 100% of your junk mail.

Image courtesy of Flickr, loop_oh


3. Phone Calls




Oddly enough, the most frustrating kind of spam -- telemarketer calls -- are actually the easiest to get rid of. When someone calls you, simply say to the caller: "Please permanently remove me from your calling list." The company is legally obligated to stop calling you. While this may not prevent them interrupting your dinner once, they technically are not allowed to do it again.

Preemptively, you can register your home or mobile number on the National Do Not Call Registry, a government database managed by the FTC that businesses are required to respect when building their call lists.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Lazurite


4. Be Smart




For better or for worse, the best advice is just to be smart. Don't give out your email or physical address unless it is absolutely necessary, don't post your information in a place that is easily accessible and don't start online fights with spammers. Two more basic tips:

  • Create a "Dummy" email: This is easier than it sounds. Just create an email you don't plan on using for personal or business reasons. Then use this email when you sign up for online deals or if stores ask for an email address at point of purchase. Having a dummy email address can divert a lot of unwanted spam away from your real accounts.
  • Don't Check the Boxes: Any web form that requires information will inevitably ask you if you'd like to receive updates about the company or future products. Make sure that box is unchecked. We know, this sounds beyond dumb. You'd be surprised how many people blitz through web forms or simply don't read the fine print. Taking that extra second will save you from having to deal with spam later on.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Dunechaser


Your Advice?


That’s a basic run through on decreasing spam in your life. Unfortunately there’s no silver bullet, but these tips should help you control the amount of junk you get. What are your tips or best practices for dealing with spam? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Flickr, fiasco, Vince_Lamb

More About: email, features, How-To, Social Media, spam


Would An iPhone 4S Be Such A Disappointment?

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:28 PM PDT


Apple will unveil a new iPhone on Tuesday; that much is a certainty. What remains unclear, even at this late stage, is whether Tim Cook will announce an iPhone 5, an iPhone 4S — or both.

We believe the new iPhone will contain the super-fast Apple A5 chip, 1 GB of RAM, an advanced voice recognition layer called Assistant, and a powerful 8 MP camera with a revamped Camera application. One of our sources says the new app will even include photo filters, a la Instagram, but we haven’t been able to confirm.

There are three major questions that nobody outside Apple seems to know the answer to:

- Will the new iPhone have a larger screen?

- Will the new iPhone have a different hardware design?

- Will Apple launch one phone, or will it launch two?

If Apple only launches one phone, then the question hinges on whether Apple has redesigned the hardware. If the casing is new, expect Apple to call it the iPhone 5. But if Apple sticks with the iPhone 4′s rectangular design, then it’s likely the company will market the device as the iPhone 4S, just as it did with the iPhone 3GS.

There are a lot of differences between the iPhone 3GS launch and Tuesday’s iPhone launch, of course. The biggest is that it’s been 16 months since the last iPhone event, and that has ramped up the expectations to an all-time high. This will also be Tim Cook’s first event as Apple CEO, and his performance will be closely watched. Meanwhile, Android has become a much stronger mobile platform than it was two years ago.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 5 Wish List Starts With 4G and Bigger Screen

There will be disappointment if Apple doesn’t reveal an iPhone 5. The speculation has convinced millions of Apple enthusiasts that Apple won’t launch anything less. Would that impact sales?

The iPhone 3GS was a smash hit, destroying sales estimates until the iPhone 4 became the best-selling phone in the U.S. The 3GS is still the second most popular phone in the country. That doesn’t necessarily mean an iPhone 4S could pull a repeat performance. But if anybody can make it work, it’s Apple.

Apple’s track record with the iPhone is spectacular, and we doubt an iPhone 4S would throw the company off track. Newer models always beat their predecessors in sales, thanks to a combination of design, software and marketing. And if the iPhone does come to Sprint, as we expect, it will be on all three major carriers.

An iPhone 4S might disappoint Apple fans for a short while — but they will stand in line for weeks in front of the Apple store, as they invariably do. Apple will continue to sell iPhones like hotcakes, regardless of the name its carries.


Bonus: What the New iPhone May Look Like



iPhone Evolution




Polish students designed this beauty, going with the curved back look. Found on VeteranGeek.


iPhone News Blog




This early mockup extrapolates from the current iPhone 4 design. It's a clean design -- one we'd be happy to slip into a pocket. Found on the German iPhone News Blog.


Nowhere Else




Those talented French artists at Nowhere Else envision the iPhone 5 having a rounded back, and accompanied this attractive illustration with an entire infographic full of iPhone 5 rumors and speculation.


9-to-5-Mac




On the left is allegedly the iPhone 5 in the hands of someone testing it on a train, and the white phone is allegedly the iPhone 4S, all found by 9-to-5 Mac.


MacRumors




MacRumors' mockup created by CiccareseDesign shows a slim cross section.


Antonello Falcon




Called the "Size Zero iPhone 5," Antonello Falcon's flight of fancy has a 4.6-inch screen, curved glass edges, a thin 8.4mm cross-section and a soft-touch Home button. Perhaps this is more akin to an iPhone 6. Found on VeteranGeek.


This is My Next




This mockup from ThisIsMyNext has been floating around for a while, but it latched on early to the teardrop-shaped cross-section and larger screen.


Roman Sima




Called the "Glossy iPhone 5," this ultra-lightweight design features a plastic cover. Here's Roman's website.


MacRumors




From MacRumors, this design echos the iPhone 4, but thinner.


Piotr Spalek




When iDeals China leaked a shot of a 4-inch screen that was alleged to belong to an iPhone 5, Polish designer Piotr Spalek put together a mockup that matched up with the screen.

More About: apple, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5


TED Starts Search for Ads Worth Spreading

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:34 PM PDT


Can a compelling advertisement be as powerful as a remarkable idea? TED believes so. For the second year running, the idea-spreading non-profit is seeking the top 10 most fascinating advertisements worth spreading.

TED launched the “Ads Worth Spreading” challenge Monday and is inviting agencies, brands, producers and people to submit “work that expresses a clever, compelling or infectious idea” between Oct. 15 and Dec. 31.

The top spots will win online distribution in the form of air play on TED.com and YouTube. They’ll also be showcased to TED attendees. Plus, each finalist will receive a one day pass, complete with travel and lodging, to TED2012.

To ensure the highest quality submissions, TED has paired one TED speaker with one advertising industry expert to create six teams that will find and nominate dynamic ads in areas ranging from social good to storytelling.

“In our brave new interconnected world, the rules of marketing are changing fast," explains Chris Anderson, TED Curator. “Ambush advertising is broken. We think there’s a better way based on sharing powerful ideas.”

TED will once again be teaming up with YouTube on the initiative. YouTube will feature the ad selections and create an art installation for TED2012, the non-profit’s annual prestigious conference to be held in March of 2012 in Long Beach, Calif.

Image courtesy of Flickr, PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

More About: Ads Worth Spreading, Advertising, TED


Sean Parker Joins Twitter, With An Apology to Zuckerberg

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:02 PM PDT


Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker is appearing in our newsfeeds with increasing frequency these days.

First, there was the Forbes cover. Then there were the Facebook ads asking users to “Like” Sean Parker on Facebook, which Gawker discovered was part of an effort to build up buzz for an upcoming blog. On Monday, we learned Rhapsody had signed an agreement to acquire Napster, the music-sharing site he helped start (though there is some dispute about his exact role, and whether he was a co-founder of the business along with creator Shawn Fanning) at age 19.

Parker sent his first tweet Monday afternoon, apparently apologizing to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for joining a rival service. It reads: “Sorry Zuck, I had to do it eventually. (Actually @scooterbraun made me do it.)” Scooter Braun is Justin Bieber’s manager.

As The Next Web points out, Parker has been planning his Twitter debut for some time. His account already has verified status. He has amassed 3,600 followers and counting at the time of this writing.

The question is: Why now? Is he seriously invested in his forthcoming blog launch? Or is he suddenly interested in making himself better known? One possibility: It was revealed last week that Parker is working on a new live video startup called Airtime, so his social media presence may be all about promoting an eventual product launch.

In the meantime, we wonder how many followers he’ll have by the end of the day Monday. My bet: 60,000.

More About: Facebook, napster, sean parker, Twitter

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Sprint Makes a Risky $20 Billion Bet on the iPhone

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:40 PM PDT


The future of Sprint now depends on the iPhone. The nation’s third-largest wireless carrier has reportedly agreed to purchase $20 billion in iPhones, regardless of whether it can find customers that will buy them.

The deal requires Sprint to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones through the next four years, according to The Wall Street Journal. The cost of those iPhones amounts to $20 billion, an upfront cost that will force Sprint to lose a lot of money on the deal until 2014.

This is a ridiculously high number for a company that had only 27.4 million postpaid subscribers as of April 2011. To come close to matching 30.5 million iPhone orders, Sprint will have to dramatically grow its customer base or convince all of its customers to switch to iPhones. Both are monumental tasks.

SEE ALSO: Apple iPhone 5 Launch: Here’s What to Expect

Sprint hopes a combination of subsidies (at least $500 per phone), strong customer service and an unlimited data plan will help the struggling wireless carrier poach customers from Verizon and AT&T, the current market leaders. In the meantime though, the deal will have a major impact on Sprint’s bottom line, depressing its profits and potentially its stock price for the next few years.

Its clear that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is betting all of his chips on the iPhone. Apple doesn’t need Sprint, but Sprint needs Apple, which is why the tech giant was able to negotiate such a one-sided deal. Still, Sprint’s future prospects were bleak without the world’s most popular smartphone. The company had little choice but to pray the iPhone remains a market leader for the next five years.

It’s a smart bet, but it’s a bet that could break the company’s back. Only time will tell if Sprint’s decision is genius or suicidal.

More About: apple, iphone, sprint

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RIP Diggnation: The End of a Web Video Era

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:38 PM PDT


After six years and 340 episodes, weekly online video show Diggnation is coming to an end, parent company Revision3 has announced.

Featuring Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, Diggnation pairs the top tech stories from Digg with copious amounts of alcohol, frat boy humor and general nerd humor. The show made its debut in July 2005 and helped pioneer a new wave of weekly, topic-focused web programming.

The show has proven to be immensely popular over the years, with thousands showing up to live shows and events. Diggnation helped prove that a business model for original, niche focused online web video could exist. Revision3 now boasts more than 80 million monthly views. While the network has many more shows on its slate, Diggnation is still among its five most watched shows, according to the The New York Times.

Much like Digg itself, Diggnation has lost its relevancy over the years, as others have joined the daily and weekly tech news space and traditional media groups have taken a greater interest in web video. As the online content space has matured, the competition for viewers’ eyeballs cut or download queue has only increased. In the tech programming space alone, Revision3 faces competition from Leo Laporte’s TWiT.tv (which started around the same time as Diggnation), Dan Benjamin’s 5by5.tv and Jason Calacanis’s ThisWeekIn.

Regardless, the end of Diggnation represents the end of an era. Albrecht will continue to focus on other web shows, including Revision3′s Totally Rad Show and Rose will focus on his latest venture, Milk.

The show will tape its last episode in December. We’ll be sure to pour one out in tribute.

More About: digg, diggnation, kevin rose, ONLINE VIDEO, revision3

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Interview With A Sexy Chicken: Hot New Twitter Account Bares All

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:27 PM PDT

NYTchicken

A recent photograph in The New York Times — for a story about cooking with chicken skin — has spawned the latest popular parody account on Twitter: @NYTchicken a.k.a. “Sexy Chicken.”

After The Times published “Chicken's Attraction Is Truly Skin Deep,” the somewhat provocative photo in the story immediately caught the attention of social media users. The next day, @NYTchicken popped up on the web.

Since Sept. 30, the account has attracted more than 1,600 followers with 19 humor-filled tweets. Sexy Chicken even caught the attention of KFC’s social media team, which tweeted, “@NYTChicken For goodness sake, cover yourself. I recommend something in a nice Original Recipe.” (See collection of tweets below.)

KFC jumped on the opportunity to have some fun with Sexy Chicken because the humor in the situation fit well with the company’s playful Twitter strategy. “Corresponding with the Twitter account of a famous photo of a chicken fits nicely at the intersection of engagement and fun,” KFC spokesman Rick Maynard told Mashable.

PETA, however, didn’t find anything funny about the picture created by NYT photographer Tony Cenicola or the subsequent parody. PETA tweeted, “@NYTChicken If pic was decapitated & amputated puppy corpse who'd laugh? If ur veg pls choose less offensive pic nxt time.”


Q&A With Sexy Chicken


With all this attention thrust on such a young Twitter account, we couldn’t help but wonder what was on Sexy Chicken’s mind. Luckily, we got a hold of @NYTchicken for a pluckin’ awesome Q&A.

Mashable: How did you get approached to pose for the NYT article? And did you feel comfortable on set?

"I'm a professional, so of course I'm comfortable on set. However, since I am kosher, one rule I have is that I won't pose with pigs.”

Sexy Chicken: “I’m represented by the d'management group in Milan. The New York Times contacted d’management looking for ‘a busty chicken model with excellent skin.’ I’m a professional, so of course I’m comfortable on set. However, since I am kosher, one rule I have is that I won’t pose with pigs.”

Mashable: How are you dealing with your sudden rise to fame?

Sexy Chicken: “It’s been amazing! I’m thrilled with the response. I feel a little like Scarlett Johansson.”

Mashable: What do you hope to accomplish with your new Twitter account?

Sexy Chicken: “I’m hoping it leads to more modeling gigs. It’s hard out there for a chick.”

Mashable: I see that you’re following only two people, @Pete_Wells and @ErnieAnastos. Why them?

Sexy Chicken: “I have to thank Pete for giving me such an opportunity to model for the Times. He’s a God in the poultry world. Ernie Anastos is my biggest fan.”

SEE ALSO: Top Fictional Accounts | Top Fake Celebs | Top Social Media & Tech Spoofs

Mashable: What’s your reaction to @PETA’s latest tweet and link?

Sexy Chicken: “Oh, please. Puppies don’t do anything for me anyway. I’m only attracted to animals on two legs, like roosters and George Clooney.”

Mashable: How’s your relationship with @kfc_colonel after its Original Recipe tweet to you?

Sexy Chicken: “Do I look like a Perdue chicken? I’m free-range and organic, baby. I wouldn’t be caught dead (so to speak) in a KFC bucket.”

Mashable: Boxers or briefs?

Sexy Chicken: “Commando.”

More About: parody, Social Media, the new york times, Twitter


iPhone 5 Scam: Fake Apple Announcement Email Leads to PC Virus [WARNING]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:02 PM PDT


While the tech world holds its collective breath for the Tuesday iPhone announcement from Cupertino, some unscrupulous hackers are taking advantage of the fact that we don’t know exactly what the new phone looks like yet — with a fake email, supposedly from Apple, announcing the “iPhone 5S.”

True, the iPhone 5S mockup doesn’t look very realistic. Those of us paying attention to reports and rumors know that it isn’t very likely to be see-through or monochromatic. Its very name is a mashup of two possible Apple phones — the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S. The grammatically-challenged text below the picture should be a tip-off, too: “Introducing the iPhone that lets you do more than ever. And do it amazingly faster.”

But for those who aren’t paying attention, and who are only vaguely aware that a new iPhone is launching this week, such an email — complete with an “order now” button — could make easy bait for malware. And that’s just what this email is, according to security firm Sophos — a lure for users to unintentionally install a nasty little Trojan called Mal/Zapchas-A.

Ironically, given the Apple-based announcement, the malware only affects Windows machines. The email was first noticed by Dutch technology journalist Abram Wagenaar. It bears a great deal of resemblance to a similar email that did the rounds just before the Steve Jobs keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

That email suggested we’d see an “iPhone 5S” with a built-in, slide-out keyboard. The look of that email was less Apple-like than the latest effort, though much of the text was similar. Memo to malware makers: You’ve learned Photoshop; now try brushing up on your copy editing.


Bonus: What the New iPhone May Look Like



iPhone Evolution




Polish students designed this beauty, going with the curved back look. Found on VeteranGeek.


iPhone News Blog




This early mockup extrapolates from the current iPhone 4 design. It's a clean design -- one we'd be happy to slip into a pocket. Found on the German iPhone News Blog.


Nowhere Else




Those talented French artists at Nowhere Else envision the iPhone 5 having a rounded back, and accompanied this attractive illustration with an entire infographic full of iPhone 5 rumors and speculation.


9-to-5-Mac




On the left is allegedly the iPhone 5 in the hands of someone testing it on a train, and the white phone is allegedly the iPhone 4S, all found by 9-to-5 Mac.


MacRumors




MacRumors' mockup created by CiccareseDesign shows a slim cross section.


Antonello Falcon




Called the "Size Zero iPhone 5," Antonello Falcon's flight of fancy has a 4.6-inch screen, curved glass edges, a thin 8.4mm cross-section and a soft-touch Home button. Perhaps this is more akin to an iPhone 6. Found on VeteranGeek.


This is My Next




This mockup from ThisIsMyNext has been floating around for a while, but it latched on early to the teardrop-shaped cross-section and larger screen.


Roman Sima




Called the "Glossy iPhone 5," this ultra-lightweight design features a plastic cover. Here's Roman's website.


MacRumors




From MacRumors, this design echos the iPhone 4, but thinner.


Piotr Spalek




When iDeals China leaked a shot of a 4-inch screen that was alleged to belong to an iPhone 5, Polish designer Piotr Spalek put together a mockup that matched up with the screen.

More About: apple, hacking, iPhone 5, security


Here’s What Google’s New “Circulars” Ad Unit Looks Like [PIC]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:55 PM PDT



A sample Circulars ad for Macy’s.

Google is testing a new kind of ad unit called “Circulars,” designed to mimic the full-page inserts traditionally found in newspapers.

These large-format ads act like destination sites, where users can explore specials being promoted at nearby retail locations. The ad format is scheduled to be unveiled formally at an Advertising Week event in Manhattan later this week, a Google spokesperson tells Mashable.

The ads, which will be personalized based on a number of factors including location and query, will pop up when viewers click on search or display ads. The ad format is compatible with desktop, mobile and tablet devices.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Nick Fox, VP of product management at Google, said Circulars were designed in response to retailers’ requests for advertising that would drive online visitors into offline stores.

“[Retailers are] trying to understand what the answer is in the digital age to the offline print circular,” Fox said. “They're trying to understand how to get their online visitors into their stores. And this is our answer to that.”

More About: Advertising, Google, google circulars


Surprise! Kindle Touch Won’t Let You Use 3G Browsing

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:47 PM PDT

kindle touch image

Anyone looking to browse the web on their Kindle Touch should find a different device. Amazon’s popular new ereader has essentially killed 3G web browsing as revealed in a sneaky post on Amazon’s Customer Service forums.

In the post, the Amazon Kindle Team says:

We apologize for the confusion. Our new Kindle Touch 3G enables you to connect to the Kindle Store, download books and periodicals, and access Wikipedia – all over 3G or Wi-Fi. Experimental web browsing (outside of Wikipedia) on Kindle Touch 3G is only available over Wi-Fi.

This means that 3G will work for aspects of the Amazon ecosystem but “experimental web browsing” (ie. anything else on the Internet) will have to be done over Wi-Fi. It’s unclear why Amazon decided to kill 3G functionality if not to keep its users on its own sites. The announcement is especially unwelcome news for users hoping to check email or browse when on vacation (Amazon’s 3G service works worldwide).

The Kindle Keyboard 3G will still allow for “experimental web browsing” over 3G and Wi-Fi.

The rest of the forum comments have been surprisingly civil with most users debating whether to stick with Kindle’s other, 3G-enabled devices.

More About: ereader, Kindle, kindle touch


RIP Napster? Rhapsody Buys Subscribers, Assets

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:26 PM PDT


The once beloved Napster may have reached the end of the line, after a 12-year-long roller coaster ride that included legal woes and social reinvention.

Music subscription service Rhapsody has signed an agreement to acquire Napster from parent company Best Buy for an undisclosed sum. Best Buy gets a minority stake in Rhapsody, which was launched in 2001. Rhapsody gets Napster subscribers and assets as part of the deal, which is expected to close on Nov. 30.

What isn’t known yet is whether the Napster name itself will go away. But from the tone of the announcement, it seems Napster subscribers and intellectual property may be folded into Rhapsody. “There’s substantial value in bringing Napster’s subscribers and robust IP portfolio to Rhapsody as we execute on our strategy to expand our business via direct acquisition of members and distribution deals,” Rhapsody president Jon Irwin said. “This is a ‘go big or go home’ business, so our focus is on sustainably growing the company.”

Rhapsody reported a subscriber base of more than 800,000 paying customers in July. Napster had 700,000 subscribers when it was acquired by Best Buy, but it is unknown how many subscribers Rhapsody will gain through the acquisition. The company hopes to compete with Spotify, the newer and trendier European streaming service which already has more than 2 million paying subscribers.

Until now, Napster has stuck around in name only. The former peer-to-peer music sharing network, launched in 1999, was first shut down in 2001. It reopened after Bertlesmann AG stepped in with an $8 million offer. Best Buy then purchased the company in 2008 for $121 million.

In more recent years, Napster has reinvented itself with social and mobile additions. Once the Rhapsody deal closes, however, all that may remain of Napster is the legend. Luckily, its story may soon be told in documentary form.

More About: napster, rhapsody

For more Entertainment coverage:


HOW TO: Leverage LinkedIn for Your SEO Campaign

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:13 PM PDT

linkedin image

Erin Everhart is the director of web and social media marketing at the digital marketing and web design company, 352 Media Group. Connect with her on Twitter @erinever.

There are two ways to conquer web marketing: good content and even better relationships. The problem is, any SEO pro has already identified this.

Try targeting blogs as link resources. Not only do people trust blogs, they're one of the most effective ways to both build your brand awareness and get high-quality content links that point back to your website. On the other hand, blogs are often overrun with coverage and link requests from online marketers. If you have any chance of getting your content to the top of the pile, you'll have to find unique ways to reach your bloggers — and LinkedIn is just the tool to help you do it.

Let's say you're working on an SEO strategy for a new restaurant in Atlanta. Part of your promotion is to encourage different local food bloggers to tour the restaurant, sample the menu and then write a review. The first term you'll use to search is "food blogs in Atlanta." After scrolling through a few of pages, you'll have a decent stock of sites. Unfortunately, they're the same sites your competitors have encountered too.

So instead of backing into content relationships, try using LinkedIn as a search tool. By manipulating its search filters, you can target specific keywords and narrow by location. A search for "food writer" in the greater Atlanta area produces more than 650 results. Taking into account that maybe 40% aren't going to be relevant because they've changed companies or don't provide an ideal content match, you're still left with a suitable sample of people.

Sticking with our Atlanta restaurant example, there are other searches you can use to bring about results. Search with and without quotation marks to ensure you're finding as many people as possible.

  • “Food" filtered by location and/or writing and editing professions
  • "Food blog" or "food blogger," filtered by location
  • "Food editor," filtered by location

Maybe you have already pinpointed the company or website from which you'd like to gain coverage, but their staff page is on lockdown, and the only contact information you can glean is a generic info@domain.com. Don't waste time writing and sending an email that will likely never get returned — or even read for that matter. Find that company on LinkedIn and search for its employees. If those people have blogger, writer, blog owner, journalist or editor on their profile, it's time to make connections.

While most say that email is the best way to reach them, it's also the most overused form of communication. Instead, try something else. If you have a "2nd degree connection" with someone on LinkedIn, you can contact them directly. If not, most writers and bloggers who are on LinkedIn also operate a Twitter account. Search for "Name + Twitter," follow that person and then tweet directly to her: "Hey Sarah. Erin here. Found your blog & love it! Great post on why turkey bacon rocks. Would love to chat about an idea. Can we email?" Your response rate will likely be higher if you A) actually know and read her blog, and B) figure out a way to set yourself apart by contacting them in an unorthodox way.

Furthermore, once you've established a connection and given that person a great angle for their content, they're more likely to think about you and your business for future posts. Maintain that relationship, because without them, your link wouldn't exist in the first place.

What are some other ways you can use LinkedIn to establish connections for your SEO campaign?

Image courtesy of Flickr, mariosundar

More About: contributor, features, linkedin, Marketing, SEO, Social Media

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Mafia Wars 2 Is All About Aggression [PREVIEW]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:16 AM PDT

mafia wars 2 image

Zynga’s new Mafia Wars 2 makes the hotly anticipated game more social by including Facebook shout-outs and contains more mature themes than its predecessor.

Zynga, the studio behind immensely popular games including FarmVille, Empires & Allies and the original Mafia Wars, will release in the coming weeks the sequel, Mafia Wars 2 — and it takes a whole new focus on aggression and combat. Mafia Wars‘ focus on crime and shady characters has always been a gamble in the casual, kid-friendly market of Facebook games, but the game’s runaway success, peaking at more than 25 million active users, has paved the way for more mature themes in Mafia Wars 2.

Mashable called in to Zynga for a preview. The game starts off with some 2D cut scenes explaining the back story (you’re a bad person trying to make a name in Vegas). The game’s style isn’t too far removed from the first Mafia Wars but this time there is a darker, more graphic novel-feel to the interludes, as well as 3D, isometric graphics (think the top-down view from early Grand Theft Auto titles).

Your character is led through some tutorials on creating buildings, finding weapons, combat and the multiplayer aspects. Mafia Wars 2 will be broken into three types of play: home turf, exploring and fighting. Players can now create little towns where they can hire workers, build casinos and even develop in-game powerups. Exploring is the equivalent of the single-player campaign where users roam through eight different Vegas-based locales including end-bosses. Fighting is the multiplayer crux.

Mafia Wars 2 has several multiplayer arenas where users can challenge each other to fights. This isn’t so much a matched, one-on-one system as a free-for-all. Beating an opponent will give you some of their cash as well as a chance to explore and loot their town. Ironically, much of this is based on a numbers game. The arenas will feature avatars of players that may not be online. Upon logging back in, users can see how their characters fared and try to enact revenge (there is both a “Friends” list and a “Rivals” list).

Despite the emphasis on aggression, combat is still pretty much point and click. This is augmented thanks to a series of three skills players can developed as they level up. It works a lot like rock, paper, scissors with some benefits based on equipment. There will also be premium (that is, real money) perks such as the ability to fully replenish your health while in a PvP battle.

Zynga has tried to make the game more social by including Facebook shout-outs. During the demo, our character went up against a stronger boss character. Players will be able to send a message to friends during this fight, asking for in-game help, or to share when they finally topple a tough foe. Similarly, players can request help from friends to beat up other players in the arena, which they themselves can’t handle.

In this way, Mafia Wars 2 is about playing with and protecting your friends, rather than just bashing people in the head. The team clearly thinks there’s a market for mature games online. “A lot of people play those happy games, but there is also a need for these,” says Ian Wang, product manager at Zynga. “You know, it’s a fantasy release. If you’ve been having a bad day, you want to go into the game and grab a baseball bat.”

Still, the game is light on gore with a strong emphasis on strategy and increasing one’s stats. The game is planned to launch in a couple weeks but take a look through the gallery below for a sneak peek at what the full game will have to offer.


Casino Row





The Bone Yard (Combat Arena)





The First Boss Fight in Casino Row





Boxer Island





Graphic Novel-Style Splash Screen




More About: Gaming, Mafia Wars 2, social gaming, video games, Zynga

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iPhone 5 Wish List Starts With 4G and Bigger Screen

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:05 AM PDT


Sure, there's a tiny chance Apple will not unveil the iPhone 5 at tomorrow's Cupertino launch event, but it's highly unlikely Apple would invite the press to its campus for a relatively insignificant upgrade like an iPhone 4S. Apple's going to roll out the big guns. And the features of the new phone are entirely up in the air.

Mashable asked its readers which features are must-haves, by choosing the one upgrade feature they'd choose if they could only have one. Bigger screen and 4G were the top responses by a wide margin. Of the nearly 11,000 votes cast, more than 2,200 want the high-speed mobile broadband option. They made this choice despite the fact battery-draining 4G could have a negative effect on the iPhone battery life, which some complained about in the comments.

Likewise, a bigger screen, which could also consume more battery life, registered more than 2,600 votes. Interestingly, a higher resolution screen received the least amount of votes (313), indicating few want the iPhone 5's icons and on-screen text to get any smaller or any less readable, even if iPhone owners end up with more screen real-estate.

Also high on the list are an 8-megapixel camera (over 1,100 votes), more memory and storage (915 votes) and a thinner body (1080). Some respondents expressed their desire for the rumored tear-drop-shaped design in the comments.

Sprint availability (which is expected), 1080p video recording, voice recognition and an NFC chip for digital credit card shopping all finished in the middle. The fact Sprint is not at the top of consumers’ wish list is somewhat surprising. When the iPhone was only available on AT&T, Verizon availability was frequently the number one request for the next iPhone. These days, the iPhone is on both AT&T and Verizon. All carriers, including Sprint, offer access to a wide variety of touchscreen phones, many of which run Google's Android mobile OS.

The unveiling is just hours away, and you can follow along on our live blog, starting at approximately 12:30 ET. Let us know what you’re most excited about in the comments


What the iPhone 5 Could Look Like



iPhone Evolution




Polish students designed this beauty, going with the curved back look. Found on VeteranGeek.


iPhone News Blog




This early mockup extrapolates from the current iPhone 4 design. It's a clean design -- one we'd be happy to slip into a pocket. Found on the German iPhone News Blog.


Nowhere Else




Those talented French artists at Nowhere Else envision the iPhone 5 having a rounded back, and accompanied this attractive illustration with an entire infographic full of iPhone 5 rumors and speculation.


9-to-5-Mac




On the left is allegedly the iPhone 5 in the hands of someone testing it on a train, and the white phone is allegedly the iPhone 4S, all found by 9-to-5 Mac.


MacRumors




MacRumors' mockup created by CiccareseDesign shows a slim cross section.


Antonello Falcon




Called the "Size Zero iPhone 5," Antonello Falcon's flight of fancy has a 4.6-inch screen, curved glass edges, a thin 8.4mm cross-section and a soft-touch Home button. Perhaps this is more akin to an iPhone 6. Found on VeteranGeek.


This is My Next




This mockup from ThisIsMyNext has been floating around for a while, but it latched on early to the teardrop-shaped cross-section and larger screen.


Roman Sima




Called the "Glossy iPhone 5," this ultra-lightweight design features a plastic cover. Here's Roman's website.


MacRumors




From MacRumors, this design echos the iPhone 4, but thinner.


Piotr Spalek




When iDeals China leaked a shot of a 4-inch screen that was alleged to belong to an iPhone 5, Polish designer Piotr Spalek put together a mockup that matched up with the screen.

More About: android, apple, iphone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5


Hate Your Hulu Ad? Now You Have More Alternatives

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:54 AM PDT


Hulu users who don’t like the ads they’re seeing will be able to find ones they might prefer, thanks to a new program called Ad Swap.

Hulu Ad Swap works like this: When you see an ad you don’t like, you can click on a number of ad choices, which have been targeted at you based on your previous ad and viewing preferences. The advertiser whose ad you clicked away from will not be charged for that impression.

The technology is a subtle change for Hulu: Hulu Ad Selector, introduced in 2008, already gives a choice of three ads from one brand or one ad from a selection of three different brands. Ad Swap will offer viewers more options than Ad Selector.

Since Ad Swap testing began a few months ago, Hulu says ad effectiveness metrics were boosted overall, improving brand recall by 93%, brand favorability by 27%, purchase intent by 35% and stated relevancy by 46%, wrote JP Colaco, senior VP of advertising at Hulu, on the company’s blog.

The company hopes Ad Swap will build on Ad Selector’s success. Two-thirds of users participate in Ad Selector and the ads perform better than standard pre-rolls.

What do you think? Does choosing an ad make you like the brand more? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Advertising, hulu


Estee Lauder Facebook App Gives Breast Cancer Awareness a Makeover

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:45 AM PDT

elizabeth hurley

The Estee Lauder Company’s 19-year-old Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign is getting a social media makeover this October. The new Shine a Light on Breast Cancer campaign includes the launch of a new Facebook app, website, and YouTube and Tumblr integration.

The campaign kicked off Sept. 27 during an online press conference with Estee Lauder spokesmodel Elizabeth Hurley for online media and bloggers. (Mashable was the only news organization admitted to the event in person.)

“We hope that Twitter users can make sure their moms, aunts and grandmas go to the doctor and are self examining,” Hurley says. “They can be the bully in the family if necessary. That would be extraordinary.”

The campaign’s launch corresponds with the start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated each October.

Estee Lauder’s campaign was the first to distribute the now-ubiquitous pink breast cancer ribbon, beginning in 1992. Since 2000, the campaign has taken a new shape, illuminating buildings around the world in pink to generate awareness. To date, it has lit up more than 200 global landmarks from Chile to Dubai to Los Angeles. The theme of the social media campaign, particularly the Facebook app, builds off of the concept of global illumination.

“Social media and social causes are made for each other,” says Marisa Thalberg, Estee Lauder Company’s VP of global digital marketing.

The Facebook app Shine a Light on Breast Cancer, which lives on the BCA Campaign’s Page, invites users to share a message of hope for men and women suffering from breast cancer. Each message adds a tiny pink dot to the world map, which should become bright pink as more people add their words of hope.

“We hope that through the simple act of sharing a message, everyone can feel empowered to play a part in helping us ‘light the world pink’ to raise awareness,” Thalberg says.

The app also includes a map of the building illumination events taking place globally this October.

The other aspects of the social media platform include YouTube StyleHaul bloggers creating illumination videos, a partnership with Tumblr photographer Jamie Beck and a Foursquare page with tips for checkins at illumination events.

The Estee Lauder Companies also launched their first website dedicated to breast cancer awareness, BCACampaign.com, which they say will serve as an evergreen portal to education about the disease and tips for healthy living.

More About: breast cancer awareness, breast cancer awareness month, estee lauder, Social Good


Facebook’s New Advertising Strategy Is Brilliant and Unexpected

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:20 AM PDT

Mashable OP-ED: This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

Facebook and Google get compared a lot these days, but with its new advertising strategy, Facebook is adapting Google's ad strategy to its social media.

Improving advertising on the popular social network is not a new or particularly innovative idea. Still the transition from advertising as a message-delivering medium to a platform for social sharing is a radical departure for Facebook. It could be the Facebook advertising solution that turns advertising partners (brands) into better social media communicators and gets Facebook members to start recommending and sharing advertisers as much as they do they latest cat video.

As for the Google comparison. Recall that in the early days, Google had a choice: Take money from advertisers for higher search rankings or ignore such offers and focus on making its search engine the best it could be.

Google at first didn’t know how it would make money. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin figured that if they built a better mousetrap, the money would eventually flow. And it did.

Like Google, Facebook didn’t invent a category, it refined it. Friendster and MySpace predated Facebook just like Yahoo and Alta Vista came before Google. Like Google, Facebook figured that if it got enough people on board and continually improved its social network, eventually it would figure out a way to make money.

Facebook’s overtures at first were clumsy. Beacon, the advertising platform Facebook introduced in 2007, informed all your friends when you made potentially embarrassing purchases or rentals on Blockbuster and other retail partners — and was eventually shuttered. Since then, Facebook seems content cashing in on its huge user base via display advertising.

SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Now, however, Facebook's ad strategy is becoming clear. And it’s not only brilliant, it’s unexpected. Facebook’s strategy, like Google’s, is to not only improve its network and experience, but improve the advertising as well. Now, that’s not so clever, admittedly. The really interesting part is the way Facebook plans to improve it: by making brand Pages better.

Why? Facebook doesn’t make a dime on any of the Pages set up by advertisers. As a marketer, you could do quite well for yourself by running a brand Page and never buying a single ad. But you could only do so well. The reason you will have to buy ads on Facebook goes to the heart of why you need to advertise in the first place.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about the marketing for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith the last movie (by release date, not chronologically) in the Star Wars franchise. I was genuinely baffled as to why Lucasfilm was putting such a heavy advertising push behind the movie. I mean, after all, didn’t everyone who cared already know that the movie was coming out?

Jim Ward, Lucasfilm’s vice president of marketing at the time, though, told me the stakes were huge for that movie. If the studio did absolutely no advertising, it would likely lose $110 million or so in box office returns. “What we need to do is go beyond the core audience, not only from a box office perspective but from a brand-management perspective,” he told me at the time.

In other words: You don’t need to let Star Wars fans know that a Star Wars movie is coming out, but you do need to target all those millions of people who are on the fence about Star Wars or are too young to remember it.

The same is true for any brand that really wants to grow. You will get only so far keeping your base happy. What you need to do is reach beyond them.

It turns out that approaching friends of that base may be the best way to do this. Why? Think back to the last time a friend convinced you to take a flyer on a new product or maybe made you think of an old brand in a new way. For instance, I have a friend who is a total Mac-head who surprised me last year when he said that Windows 7 was as good as the Mac OS. Movies are another good example. Have you ever written off a new movie only to be completely turned around when a friend told you it was actually really good? (Of course, this cuts the other way, too.)

That’s the thinking behind two new announcements Facebook is making this week. One is a new ad unit. The other is a set of metrics that will help administrators create better brand Pages.

The combination of the two reveals where Facebook’s thinking is going. Facebook is putting pressure on advertisers to create better content for their brand Pages. If they do, those brands will have a better chance of winning over friends of fans either by advertising or by creating something viral. It’s a cycle that has the potential to redefine the way we interact with brands. From now on, brands will be friends or friends of friends rather than spammers trying to bombard your consciousness.

Social media is still new, but so was search once. While figuring out how to make money off of search seems obvious in retrospect, it clearly wasn’t at the time. In the same way, someday we’ll look back at how Facebook invented social media advertising and wonder why no one thought of it sooner.

More About: Advertising, beacon, Facebook, Google, Opinion, trending


David Hasselhoff Rides a Toy Horse in the Clouds for Air New Zealand [VIDEO]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:06 AM PDT


Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

The Internet’s fascination with David Hasselhoff continues this week with this odd ad for Air New Zealand that features the Hoff doing just what the title of this story says.

The premise is that “The Inseparable Sheep Twins,” as they’re known, are enjoying the airline’s Skycouch when one asks the other what he dreams about. Cut to the Hoff bucking a toy bronco in the clouds.

The two ads below feature the continuing adventures of the Sheep Twins, including an encounter with Playboy‘s Karissa and Kristina Shannon and some ill reactions to an alcoholic beverage.

The airline, which seems to be following a similar strategy to Wonderful Pistachios, has drafted celebrities for such silliness before. Lindsay Lohan and Richard Simmons are recent recruits. The Hoff starred in another ad in July.


The Inseparable Sheep Twins Meet Playboy Playmates Karissa and Kristina Shannon.



The Inseparable Sheep Twins Have a Drink


More About: air new zealand, David Hasselhoff, lindsey lohan, richard simmons, viral-video-of-day


iPhone 5 Expected to Shatter Sales Records [REPORT]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:36 AM PDT


Wall Street analysts are already predicting record first day sales for Apple’s iPhone 5.

Apple will unveil the follow-up to the iPhone 4, the iPhone 5 (or perhaps, the rumored iPhone 4S), at an event in Cupertino on Tuesday.

Demand and anticipation for a new iPhone is always high, but thanks to a 16-month gap between the release of the iPhone 4 and its successor, customers are more excited about the iPhone 5 than ever.

In a note to investors, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White expects “pent up demand” for a new iPhone to “shatter” single day sales records. In 2010, the iPhone 4 moved 1.7 million units in its first three days of release and was Apple’s most successful product launch ever.

SEE ALSO: Apple iPhone 5 Launch: Here’s What to Expect

Beyond sheer demand, the next iPhone is expected to launch simultaneously on more wireless carriers. Not only will AT&T and Verizon get the phone in the U.S., Sprint is also rumored to be carrying the device. On the international front, China Mobile is reportedly in negotiations to carry the iPhone 5, a move that could end up with millions upon millions of new customers for the Cupertino-based company.

Cult of Mac cites Janney Capital Markets analyst Bill Choi, who is telling investors he expects Apple to push 84 million iPhone units through the end of 2011 and up to 107 million in 2012. According to Choi, “Apple is well positioned to capture an enormous profit pool as mobility and content worlds converge.”

I spent seven hours in line to get my reserved iPhone 4 last summer. My line buddy remarked that he spent less time waiting in line to get tickets to see Elvis in concert in the 1960s. At the time, I said, “never again.” Of course, if I can’t snag a device online, I will be one of the thousands of people lined up outside of the 5th Avenue Apple Store.

The next iPhone is rumored to have a faster dual-core processor, a thinner profile and perhaps a larger screen. It will also feature a host of new improvements and enhancements thanks to iOS 5, including voice recognition and discovery, deep Twitter integration, better notifications and Apple’s new iCloud platform.

Will you wait in line for the iPhone 5? Let us know in the comments.


What the iPhone 5 Could Look Like



iPhone Evolution




Polish students designed this beauty, going with the curved back look. Found on VeteranGeek.


iPhone News Blog




This early mockup extrapolates from the current iPhone 4 design. It's a clean design -- one we'd be happy to slip into a pocket. Found on the German iPhone News Blog.


Nowhere Else




Those talented French artists at Nowhere Else envision the iPhone 5 having a rounded back, and accompanied this attractive illustration with an entire infographic full of iPhone 5 rumors and speculation.


9-to-5-Mac




On the left is allegedly the iPhone 5 in the hands of someone testing it on a train, and the white phone is allegedly the iPhone 4S, all found by 9-to-5 Mac.


MacRumors




MacRumors' mockup created by CiccareseDesign shows a slim cross section.


Antonello Falcon




Called the "Size Zero iPhone 5," Antonello Falcon's flight of fancy has a 4.6-inch screen, curved glass edges, a thin 8.4mm cross-section and a soft-touch Home button. Perhaps this is more akin to an iPhone 6. Found on VeteranGeek.


This is My Next




This mockup from ThisIsMyNext has been floating around for a while, but it latched on early to the teardrop-shaped cross-section and larger screen.


Roman Sima




Called the "Glossy iPhone 5," this ultra-lightweight design features a plastic cover. Here's Roman's website.


MacRumors




From MacRumors, this design echos the iPhone 4, but thinner.


Piotr Spalek




When iDeals China leaked a shot of a 4-inch screen that was alleged to belong to an iPhone 5, Polish designer Piotr Spalek put together a mockup that matched up with the screen.

More About: apple, iphone, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5


Washington Post Hops on Android Bandwagon

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:29 AM PDT


The Washington Post has launched a free app for Android, offering news, photo galleries and photo essays, blogs, traffic and weather info.

The app’s dashboard offers quick access to the various parts of the app. Users can search through the article database and share stories via email, SMS, Facebook and Twitter. The app features a breaking news feed. It also caters to local users by offering daily and hourly weather forecasts, as well as metro and traffic information, including alerts, arrival times and live traffic cameras.

The launch follows Android apps by other major newspapers, including the The New York Times, The Guardian and Le Monde.

More About: android, App, smartphone, washington post


5 Brands That Are Surprisingly Successful on Facebook

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT


The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, Mass., that makes a full platform of marketing software, including social media management tools.

When Facebook became a big deal a couple of years ago, it was fairly easy to predict that some brands would quickly become popular there.

It didn’t take a genius to see that, for example, Starbucks would have a big following. The brand has a tech-savvy clientele who are frequently filing a status update from one of the chain’s many locations. (Full disclosure: This story is being written at a Starbucks.) Likewise, you’d have to try hard to screw up Coca-Cola’s inevitable path to Facebook success, and at times it appeared that Coke was trying to do just that.

What is surprising as you go down the list of the top Facebook brands, though, is how random it appears. The list doesn’t remotely match up to what are judged to be the top global brands.

For instance, IBM, a giant in the global brands landscape, is a pygmy on Facebook with just around 68,000 users. General Electric, meanwhile, has around 104,000 fans, which is about 700,000 fewer than Jones Soda.

On the other hand, there are a lot of brands that are huge on Facebook that are just medium-size in real life. Sometimes this is by design, other times it’s dumb luck, and sometimes it just appears to be a case where fans over-index as Facebook users. Whatever the case, these are what are known in the movie industry as “sleepers” — that is, unlikely hits — and they exist on the world’s largest social network, too.


1. Oreo




Chances are you know Oreo and, unless you're a health fanatic, you probably have a pretty positive opinion of it. But are you so into Oreo that you want to go on Facebook and talk about it? Well, apparently more than 22 million people are. What's really amazing is that most of that growth has taken place over the last year.

Launched in 2009, the site was originally very American-focused, but in July 2010, the company realized that about half of its then-5 million fans were from outside the U.S., a discovery that Mark Clouse, senior vice president for global biscuits at Kraft Foods, called an "aha moment."

Armed with that information, the brand and agency 360i revamped the brand's Facebook Page to make it more international. New features like "world's fan of the week" recognized Oreo's foreign followers. Beyond that, 360i has created some attention-getting stunts for the brand, most notably a bid to break the Guinness World Record for most Likes in a 24-hour period, an attempt which was overshadowed by rap star Lil' Wayne.


2. Nutella




Perhaps given Oreo's success, it's not surprising that another sweets brand has made this list. The odd thing about Nutella, though, is that, initially at least, the company did absolutely nothing to establish its community of users on Facebook. Yet by early 2009, the brand was number three in popularity on the network, above President Obama and Coca-Cola.

It turns out, Nutella is one of those cult brands that people love to talk about. There are, for instance, about 12,000 videos on YouTube featuring Nutella and 40,000 images on Flickr. It's not hard to see why: Nutella is a yummy chocolate treat that also has an air of European sophistication. Who wouldn't want to friend that?


3. Converse




Converse is a great example of a brand that has a relatively small presence IRL, but is a giant online. Converse has about 20 million fans on Facebook, and Converse All Star has another 20 million, so if you put both together, they'd have more fans than anyone on Facebook, even Rihanna.

What's Converse's secret? As chief marketing officer Geoff Cottrill explained to Mashable in May, his philosophy is to get out of the way and let Converse's fans set the tone for the Page. "We listen more than we talk," Cottrill said.


4. Audi




What's notable about Audi's Facebook presence isn't so much it's size -- though 3.6 million fans is respectable -- as it is the amount of engagement from its followers. Audi got more than 225 Likes per 100,000 fans, a level of engagement that topped even Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, according to researcher Visibli. Audi has run some "Like-gated" programs of late that helped it get to that figure, but the brand also keeps up a steady stream of photos on its Page. Three photos on July 16, celebrating Audi's 102nd birthday, netted more than 16,000 Likes.


5. I Love Being Black




I Love Being Black is an apparel company, but the brand's Facebook Page seeks to be a not-so-mini social network for African-Americans.

The brand throws out questions to fans like "Who's your favorite black comedian of all time?" and "Should Chris Brown be cast in Think Like a Man? Do we forgive too quickly or has his image been reborn?" that generate hundreds of comments and Likes. The discussion is rarely about apparel, a function of ILBB's "more than a brand" positioning.


Series supported by HubSpot

The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, Mass., that makes a full platform of marketing software, including social media management tools.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Like_The_Grand_Canyon

More About: Digital Marketing Series, Facebook, features, mashable

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3 Reasons VoIP Phones Make Sense for Small Businesses

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 07:34 AM PDT

Chris Moody leads the marketing efforts for Phonebooth.com, a leading small business phone systems provider built by smart software guys. He frequently guest lectures at local universities, discussing social media and new marketing methods.


You are a small business, therefore, you need an easy way to communicate with your customers and vice versa. Picking a phone system that you can rely on is a complicated, tricky business, and not really something you want to hassle with at the end of the day.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to two options. A traditional phone system relies on phone lines that are connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), on circuits operated by Private Branch Exchange (PBX) equipment. Secondly, a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider transmits your voice over the Internet as data. Ultimately, you have to judge what's best for your company and, more importantly, what gets the job done most efficiently.

VoIP has a number of benefits over traditional, hard-line phone systems, and its statistics are impressive. Last year the FCC reported that use of VoIP increased 21%, to over 30 million VoIP subscribers in the U.S. alone.

But what are the real reasons behind its popularity? Here, I hope to target a few of the lesser-known reasons why VoIP can be useful for small businesses.


1. No More Wonky Phone Switches


In the past, running your business over a traditional phone system required a phone switch — a closet full of physical phone lines and hardware to run it. You had to hire a technical support person to manage all your company's phone lines, and to fix the switch or support hardware when things went wrong.

Not only are phone switches and their maintenance expensive, but they are also slow and difficult to fix. Your system could be down for a significant amount of time before a technician arrives to diagnose and fix the problem – all the while losing productivity.

With VoIP, the system is the phone switch. The provider's network transmits voice data over the Internet (like email and web data), and replaces the switch entirely.

Why is this important? Aside from more space in your office, VoIP gives you a host of features that are difficult to access using a traditional hard-line system, for instance, making calls from your computer or laptop, and forwarding calls to your mobile phone. New features like these are easily integrated into your VoIP system as they become available, and don't require any new hardware installs or complicated tech support manuals.


2. Better Remote Customer Support


Old-fashioned office phone lines are supported by old-fashioned companies built on legacy phone systems that are 30 to 50-years old. These companies operate on business models that were developed for last-century markets. This makes it difficult to respond to the needs of your business quickly and easily. Customers of traditional phone companies often complain about complicated or time-consuming customer interfaces and un-integrated service offerings.

VoIP vendors are next-generation service providers built on the most up-to-date systems. They are hip to web-based software, and can respond to changes in the market more quickly than traditional phone companies.

VoIP vendors have web-based customer support, as well as over-the-phone help. The VoIP customer service model can eliminate the need for a technician's visit, and can minimize delays in problem-solving. Customers love how quickly and easily they can get VoIP up and running for their businesses, and are astounded by the difference of service, compared to what they've come to expect from traditional telecom providers. With the proper network and the right provider, it can be as easy as plugging an Ethernet cable into your VoIP phone.


3. More User-Friendly for Employees


Remember struggling to forward a call on your traditional phone system? Have you ever forgotten your password to access your work voicemail remotely? Did you master call-forwarding, sending calls to your mobile number when you were away from your desk?

Traditional telecom providers offer these features, but they are difficult for your employees to figure out. Your employees are web and mobile savvy, and dealing with complicated phone interfaces frustrates them to no end.

VoIP technology is integrated into systems that you and your employees are already using, like the web and mobile devices. Management portals that are customizable to your business provide a simplified interface to administer your communication needs.

Call forwarding is much easier (no more crazy codes and # signs) with integrated find-me, follow-me features that allow your employees to get incoming calls at different locations, on different phones. Employees can access their voicemail from email or have it sent to their mobile phones. No longer do they have to remember their passwords when they call their work voicemail.

Some VoIP customers have found it effective to train a few employees on the administrator features and then provide instructions so the entire staff can manage their own account settings. These user-friendly features are more aligned with the values that today's mobile, agile workers have come to expect.


With cutting-edge functionality, easy-to-use features and an enhanced customer support experience, VoIP is especially suited to the needs of small business. VoIP systems are flexible enough to respond to the needs and changes of your small business, and will bolster your business communications and productivity alongside the systems that you and your employees are already using.

Images courtesy of Flickr, kozumel, mookielove

More About: phone, small busines, Tech, voip


Facebook Avoids Timeline Restraining Order — But Delays Launch [UPDATED]

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:48 AM PDT


UPDATE: Nothing in the most recent legal filing indicates that Facebook changed its Timeline launch date as a result of the suit. However, several developers have noted that a message saying that Timelines would automatically publish to the public on September 29 has since been updated to October 6.

A federal judge has refused to grant a temporary restraining order on Facebook at the request of Timelines.com, a small Chicago company that claims Facebook’s new Timeline feature threatens its business But Facebook did say it would delay a full launch, according to PaidContent’s sources.

Facebook Timeline, a feature that reorganizes users’ profiles into multimedia-rich scrapbooks of past updates, has been expected to go live any day. Some 1.1 million users have already installed the feature on their profiles by enabling developer access.

The judge in Timelines.com’s patent lawsuit declined the site’s request to disable users from signing on through the developer program. He did, however, order Facebook to report daily how many new developers were enabling the Timeline.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Is Getting Too Damn Complicated [OPINION]

In the filing, Sam Lessin, product manager at Facebook, promised that Facebook would not launch Timeline between the time of his testimony and Tuesday, when representatives from Facebook and Timelines.com will meet again in front of another federal judge to debate whether an injunction should be issued against Facebook.

More About: Facebook, facebook timeline, timelines.com


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