Mashable: Latest 13 News Updates - including “Apple Records Best-Ever Sales on Black Friday [REPORT]”

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Mashable: Latest 13 News Updates - including “Apple Records Best-Ever Sales on Black Friday [REPORT]”

Apple Records Best-Ever Sales on Black Friday [REPORT]

Posted: 28 Nov 2011 03:08 AM PST


Apple sales broke all records this Black Friday, 9to5Mac reports citing inside sources.

Apple’s forecast for Black Friday sales is four times more than normal; according to 9to5Mac’s source, Apple broke that forecast by 7pm this year.

While we don’t have the exact numbers for individual categories, MacBook Air sales were reportedly particularly good. Apple had offered a $101 discount for MacBook Pro, iMac and MacBook Air this year.

One reason why Apple did so well this year, in spite of somewhat lackluster discounts, was probably the fact that this Black Friday was particularly hot when it comes to online shopping. According to a report from comScore, Black Friday saw $816 million in online sales, a 26-percent increase over last year. IBM’s data suggests a similar surge, with Black Friday online sales rising 24.3% compared to last year.

According to comScore, Apple was the 5th most-visited online retail store on Black Friday, behind Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

More About: apple, black friday, sale

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Motorola Droid 4 Specifications Leak Out

Posted: 28 Nov 2011 01:24 AM PST


The official specifications and pictures of the upcoming Motorola Droid 4 have been unearthed by Droid Life, revealing a device very similar to the Droid Razr, with the addition of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

The device sports a 4-inch qHD screen – slightly smaller than RAZR’s 4.3-inch screen – and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back as well as a HD-capable one on the front for video chats, and it supports fast data transfer via LTE. As for the keyboard, it’s a 5-row, edge-lit, PC-like variety.

The Droid 4 is slated to hit Verizon’s stores on December 8.

Head on over to Droid Life for a neat comparison of the evolution from the original Droid to the Droid 4.

More About: android, Droid 4, Motorola, on-demand, smartphone

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9 Amazing Amazon Deals for Cyber Monday

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 08:48 PM PST


Fujifilm FinePix F505 16 MP CMOS Sensor & 15x Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 4 GB Memory Card




You can get half off this Fujifilm digital camera and memory card package on Monday. It's selling for $199.90, down from $399.95.

Click here to view this gallery.

The Black Friday madness may be over, but the holiday bargains live on — through Cyber Monday, that is.

Mashable combed through Amazon‘s offerings for Monday deals and put them together in this roundup. You’ll find everything from 42-inch LCD HD TVs to digital cameras to DVDs. If you’re looking for laptops or bluetooth devices, our list has some of those too.

Which gadgets are on your list this holiday season? What deals have you found so far, and what websites will you be shopping on Monday? Tell us in the comments below.

More About: amazon, cyber monday, ecommerce, holiday 2011, shopping

Computer System Can Recognize Human Emotion [VIDEO]

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 07:20 PM PST


Scientists have created a computer system that attempts to recognize human emotions such as anger and impatience by analyzing the acoustics of one’s voice. Such a system would have obvious implications for perennially frustrating interactive voice response systems, but could be applied to other areas as well.

Learn more about the technology in the video above and let us know how you’d like to see it used in the comments below.

[via gizmag]

More About: trending, voice recognition

How To: Turn Your Instagram Photos Into Wall Art

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 06:16 PM PST


Instagram photos aren’t just for sharing online anymore.

You can turn them into photo books, frame them in four-inch bamboo shadowbox frames, create a collage with them on iPhone cases, turn them into iPad screensavers and now, print them on canvas for your wall.

Earlier this week, CanvasPop launched a service that allows you to print your Instagram photos on two large-format canvas sizes: 12″ x 12″ (for $29.95) and 20″ x 20″ (for $59.95). The company sent over a 12″ x 12″ sample developed with an Instagram shot I took at Kate Spade’s Spring 2012 presentation in October.

The original:

The print (taken with a less-than-great point-and-shoot):

<

A closeup:

I was impressed with the quality, particularly given the original image is 612 x 612 pixels at a resolution of 72 dpi. CanvasPop Co-Founder Adrian Salamunovic says the company uses “special filters,” among other methods, to improve the photo quality when enlarged. “Plus, canvas is a medium that is naturally forgiving to low resolution images because it is textured and porous, as opposed to a high-gloss photo paper,” he added.

The prints are 1.5″ deep and can be made with either a white or black border. The canvas appears to be stapled to the back by hand — as the staples aren’t perfectly lined up — and comes with a mount for hanging the print from the wall. Given the width of the prints, you can get away without framing them. And as you can see above, they look great in rows.

What do you do with your Instagram photos after you’ve shared them? Would you create print versions on canvas? Let us know in the comments below.

More About: art, instagram, photography

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Google Doodle Readies Voters for Egypt Election

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 05:05 PM PST


Google is highlighting the 2011 Egyptian elections with a doodle on its search homepage for Egypt. Each of the six letters that spell out “Google” perform an action of the voting process — from waiting in line to adding a vote to the ballot box.

Monday marks the country’s first parliamentary elections since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in the wake of a massive uprising earlier this year. Polls are open in Cairo, Alexandria and seven other provinces. Giza, Aswan and Suez voting begins on Dec. 14, Bloomberg reports.

Though it’s uncertain whether the Google doodle will inspire Egyptians to vote, they’re undoubtedly taking notice.

“I find [the Goodle doodle] very significant to the new generation in Egypt that uses technology. We all know what Google is and what it means for them to give us some international attention,” says Nasry Esmat, an Egyptian journalist living in New York. “The doodle adds more to our pride.”

The doodle isn’t Google’s first contribution to the much-anticipated Egypt elections. In September, the company developed an election API to facilitate the voting process. It not only gave citizens easy access to elections information, including polling locations and candidate profiles, but also allowed mobile service providers the opportunity to develop election applications.

“The majority of Egyptians still cant use the Internet or computers, but these tools are very effective because they help those who have basic knowledge to spread the information,” Esmat says. “And, honestly, those who have basic knowledge are the ones who can make change in Egypt.”

BONUS: More Google Doodles


The Christmas Google Doodle


Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: google doodle, trending

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Niche Social Networks Deliver Big Results for Brands

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 03:52 PM PST

people image

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

When small businesses contemplate a social media strategy, Facebook and Twitter get lots of attention. However, niche social networks and online communities offer additional opportunities for brands to connect with consumers in an environment that's highly targeted and often less congested. Let's look at how a different brands are using Instagram, Pinterest and Foodspotting to reach out to potential customers in novel ways.

1. Instagram: "Mod" Photos Take Center Stage

Instagram is a photo-sharing app that makes it easy for anyone with an iPhone to snap a photo, apply a filter and share it with friends on Instagram and other networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr. The filters offer an added sense of creativity and "color correction" — perfect for amateur photographers.

ModCloth, an online retailer of vintage and retro clothing from independent designers, joined Instagram this summer. After creating an account, ModCloth discovered a strong pre-existing fashion community.

"Many of our employees, including our co-founder and CCO Susan Gregg Koger, were already huge fans of the platform. So, we were very enthusiastic about joining in on the conversation and we found their mission similar to ours," says ModCloth's Alicia Barnes. "We want to make fashion accessible to all women, and Instagram makes beautiful photography possible from your iPhone."

ModCloth shares Instagram images a few times each day — everything from marketing campaign images and photo shoot accessories to bloggers and staffers donning Modcloth's trendy clothes.

2. Pinterest: Pin Your Way to the Top

In addition to assimilating into Instagram's fashionable, photo-centric community, ModCloth found similar success with Pinterest, a virtual design "pinboard." On Pinterest, people can "pin" items they find on the web — everything from recipes and home décor to DIY crafts and style inspirations.

ModCloth joined Pinterest in the fall of 2011, but it's already one of ModCloth.com's top unpaid referral sites in terms of traffic and revenue. Why? According to Barnes, it’s thanks to "product photography and blog content that resonates with their audience.” ModCloth has approximately 7,000 pins tagged on Pinterest, and 99% of them are from advocates of the ModCloth brand and products, she adds.

Foodspotting: Taste and Tell

According to locals of Gainesville, Florida, the city boasts a wide selection of independent restaurants — hidden gems that residents new and old may need help discovering. As director of social media and marketing for apartment company Contemporary Management Concepts (CMC), Melanie Ling wanted to use her love of food to create new connections with local residents and differentiate her property selection from the competition. Then, she discovered Foodspotting, an app that draws attention to specific dishes offered at local restaurants.

Ling realized the service could help CMC connect with local businesses and residents — both key referral sources — while also providing a "value add" to existing residents. As she explains: "The food here is really good. Why not start sharing it as content for the blog and our residents?"

In addition to sharing more than 150 photos on Foodspotting, Ling took the food-focused concept a step further by writing restaurant-review blog posts and hosting an "eat up" for local Foodspotters (another helpful way to connect with potential residents and referral sources).

Ling says incorporating Foodspotting into CMC's online presence has helped the company develop relationships with local businesses, some of which have referred new employees to CMC apartments.

Tips For Going Niche

Thinking about how your business can leverage one of these niche networks or a network like Tumblr, Turntable.fm, Tout, or Streamzoo? Members of these communities won't respond well to advertising messages; instead, take the time to understand the networks' specific culture and then determine how to assimilate and participate in a manner that supports overall goals, such as increased brand loyalty and awareness.

According to Barnes, "Participation should be consistent and authentic, behavior that makes sense for site etiquette. These niche communities, as strong as they are on their own, cannot exist in a silo. For them to truly succeed, they must be part of your larger brand story and be supported by the other channels."

More About: features, foodspotting, instagram, Marketing, mashable, pinterest, Social Media

The 10 Most Retweeted Photos of the Week [PICS]

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 02:28 PM PST


1. Justin Bieber & Family




The most popular photo this week was uploaded by Justin Bieber, a 17-year-old pop singer with more than 14 million followers on Twitter. The photo shows him with his mother, grandmother and great grandmother along with the tweet, "this is #LOVE - mom, grandma, great grandma - strong women. #FAMILY"

Click here to view this gallery.

Roughly 24 million photos were tweeted from English-language Twitter accounts for the week ending Nov. 24, according to real-time photo search engine Skylines.

Per usual, many of the most-retweeted photos were originally distributed by popular singers. A photo of Justin Bieber with his mother, grandmother and great grandmother nabbed the top spot, while UK boyband One Direction managed to lob five different photos into the top 10.

Thanksgiving also proved a popular topic: More than 30,000 pictures were posted to Twitter in commemoration of the holiday, Skylines reported.

Flip through the gallery above to see the 10 most popular Twitter photos for the week, which excludes spam advertisements. Last week’s roundup of top photos can be found here.

More About: Photos, twitpic, Twitter, yfrog

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Cyber Monday: 6 Years of Online Discounts [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 01:09 PM PST

Thousands of online retailers will discount their stock for Cyber Monday — the online version of Black Friday — now in its sixth year.

Last year, Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion in the United States, making it the biggest day for online retail to date. Yet many businesses are increasingly discounting their goods on Black Friday as well — and consumers are responding. Online sales this past Friday were up 24.3% compared to last year, according to an IBM survey of 500 retailers.

For a look at Cyber Monday’s inception and how the movement has grown during the past half decade, check out the infographic below.


[via YouNeverLose.com]

More About: cyber monday, ecommerce, infographic, trending

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Top 5 Reasons to Intern at Mashable

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 12:22 PM PST


Mashable is looking for editorial and community interns to join our New York and San Francisco offices during the upcoming spring semester.

I’ve now been an intern here since February, while I finish my masters degree at NYU, and I can assure you that if being an intern here was anything less than a great experience, I wouldn’t have made it this far. Ten months is a long time to be an intern. Fortunately, there are lots of reasons to want to come work here.

1. You Get to Write About Awesome Stuff

As an intern on the Mashable Community team, I’ve had the opportunity to write about a lot of different topics, including our community initiatives. While interns can expect to receive assignments, I’ve had the freedom to write about things I’m passionate about. When I asked if I could do some music blogging, Entertainment Editor Christina Warren said, “Pitch away.” I wrote about New York City’s digital intiatives. I used Storify to cover a contentious day of protests at Occupy Wall Street. Oh, and don’t forget: I got Mashable staff to embrace stocking. You’ll be able to carve out a niche for yourself here.

2. You Get to Hang Out with Awesome People

What more and more people are realizing — and this is becoming more obvious as the company grows — is that a walk around our office will introduce you to many smart, witty, passionate people who have diverse interests. Being an intern at a smaller company like Mashable means you can pretty much pick these people’s brains on anything, whenever. That’s not a resource to be taken lightly. Even more importantly, the office is by and large full of young journalists who are social and won’t shy away from helping you out when you need it.

3. You Get to Interact with Mashable‘s Awesome Community

You won’t feel like you’re talking to no one, that’s for sure. A lot of people come to Mashable for information, which means there’s a whole lot of knowledge coming into the site that you can tap in to. People are more than happy to tell you in the comments of a story when you’re wrong, but they’re also likely to give you feedback and tell you when they appreciate the work you’ve done. There’s a lot to be learned from this community, too. Look no further than our LinkedIn group, where professionals are discussing tips and best practices for social media and business. I spend more time listening than I do talking, because I find the wisdom of this crowd to be very useful.

4. The Kitchen Is Stocked Every Day

If you’re a college or graduate student, chances are you aren’t living the life of the 1%. In addition to getting paid to be an intern at Mashable, there’s a fully stocked kitchen with snacks, coffee, and soda. I promise you no one will give you a dirty look if you go back for a third time by 3 p.m., either. My usual suspects: oatmeal in the morning, raisins around lunch, pretzels in the afternoon. As they say, “it’s the little things.”

5. Mashable Interns Wind Up in Good Places

On Jan. 3, I’ll start full-time as the newest Community Assistant at Mashable, and I’ll have company. Joining me that day will be Chelsea Stark as Multimedia Producer and Stephanie Buck as Features Writer. Both of them went through the internship program this year, as did Zoe Fox, now a Reporter in our New York office. Other interns that worked here earlier this year have gone on to work as Social Media Editor at Univision and as a freelance videographer doing projects in places like Cambodia and Haiti. This isn’t to say that a Mashable internship is a guarantee of employment, but the people here care and will do everything they can to ensure their interns are successful and happy.

Sound Like a Good Place for You?

Read more about internships and jobs at Mashable and apply here. We look forward to hearing from you!

More About: internships, jobs, mashable

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How Job Seekers Are Using Mobile [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 10:33 AM PST

The jobless rate is hovering above 9%, and job seekers have to be more savvy than ever to land a job. In fact, 77% of job-seekers are using mobile apps in their search. Why mobile? For one thing, people almost always have their phones on them, which means they can get job leads on the fly and respond faster than on their not-as-portable laptops. Not surprisingly, Android, which is dominating the smartphone market, is the most-used OS for these on-the-go job seekers.

Check out the infographic below to see how people are using mobile apps and devices, and take a look at other career information in our weekly Job Search Series.


Infographic courtesy of Beyond.

Social Media Job Listings

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

More About: infographics, job search series

3 Tools for Finding What You’re Looking For

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 09:36 AM PST


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.

Each weekend, Mashable selects startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.

This week we’ve focused on three new services that help you find things you might be looking for — whether they be eco-friendly adventures, jobs or apartments, or designers and developers.

Much Better Adventures

Quick Pitch: Connects adventure-seekers to recommended local guides, accommodation and tour operators, while supporting local business and rewarding ethical practice.

Genius Idea: Individuals can find sports travel adventures far from the well-beaten tourist path, while experiencing a new place in a sustainable way.

Mashable’s Take: For people looking for adrenaline-pumping eco-tourism destinations, Much Better Adventures would be a good place to start. The site offers responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.

“From trekking with Mongolian nomads to sailing round the Greek islands, many Much Better Adventures directly contribute to conservation, sustainable development and research projects. Others 'just' involve staying with friendly people who live locally, share your passion for an activity, and are working toward a more sustainable future,” says the site.

The homepage for Much Better Adventures asks you two fairly simple questions: What do you want to do, and where do you want to go? You choose what kind of activity — for instance, snow, hike or water-related — and then get more specific within each category. For example, I chose walk or hike, then narrowed it down with a multi-day trek/expedition. Next, I chose a continent, then country.

The results for Thailand turn up a 23-day trek that includes rock climbing, kayaking, swimming in waterfalls and mountain biking. The package costs about $2,600 USD per person and includes accommodations, taxes, guide and all transportation during the trip. That’s not too bad for nearly a month of travel — and travel that you can feel good about both physically and ethically.

The Guardian named Much Better Adventures one of the “best travel websites ever.” It’s based in the UK and was founded by Alex Narracot and Ed White.

Socialisting

Quick Pitch: Find apartments, jobs, and stuff from people you trust — your friends and their friends.

Genius Idea: Help your friends, and let your friends help you, by knowing what your friends need or have available through social listings.

Mashable’s Take: How many times have you seen friends on Facebook look for roommates or subletters? How many times have you sent emails to former colleagues enquiring about jobs? Socialisting tries to consolidate all of these searches socially, through Facebook. It lets you see your friends and friends of friends’ listings for apartments, jobs, items for sale, services, workspaces, community activities and more.

“Instead of everything coming from strangers with the potential of scams – or worse – Socialisting keeps everything within two degrees of separation,” says the site. “Everything you see is from someone you know or someone who knows someone you know.”

Socialisting is able to do that by leveraging Facebook’s API. After granting the app access to your Facebook information, you can see which of your Facebook friends are already using the app, and you can send them a request to connect on Socialisting. (In my case, only one person was already a member.) You can also invite your Facebook friends to join. You can go on to personalize your profile with interests, activities, work and education information, or post and search for listings.

Lawrence Lewitinn launched Socialisting in May. He was inspired by the social trend that followed the recession: friends were turning to Facebook looking for jobs. To better connect the job seekers with potential employers, he created a Facebook group, and from that grew Socialisting.

The idea behind the service seems smart to us, and far less sketchy than interacting with strangers on Craigslist. But right now the downside to Socialisting is there’s simply no one to interact with at all. The service is only effective if your friends are also using it. If it can overcome that hurdle, Socialisting could be a promising source for finding many things you or your friends might be looking for.

WeekendHacker

Quick Pitch: A curated network of developers and designers who help on each others’ projects by trading skills.

Genius Idea: WeekendHacker is a way to find designers or developers for very small projects — that would take no longer than a weekend to complete.

Mashable’s Take: WeekendHacker, which began as a newsletter, was created as a network for developers and designers to find each other when they needed help with small tasks — not something that would take long to complete and not something that you should probably pay to have done.

The newsletter has now morphed into a web interface to WeekendHacker’s curated mailing list, and its creator plans to create an online community, as well as new features, such as finding partners for co-studying. The service is free (though a premium offering is in the works) and work can be paid for with money, fame, fun or by trading skills.

“My hope is that weekendhacker.net will become a place where cool projects are published, people meet potential cofounders and the network becomes strong enough to build a launch pad for the projects,” the site says.

Thomas Petersen launched WeekendHacker in May. Since then, more than 7,500 designers and developers have signed up and more than 200 projects have been posted with 700 pledges to help.

WeekendHacker fits nicely into the spirit of open source and the camaraderie common among developers on GitHub, Forrst and Hacker News. And it could certainly be the newest addition to developers’ toolkits.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Gerlos

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, Much Better Adventures, Socialisting, Startup Weekend Roundup, travel, WeekendHacker

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How a ‘Facebook Phone’ Could Help Facebook Break Into Mobile Apps [VIDEO]

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 08:36 AM PST

According to (unconfirmed) reports, Facebook is working with HTC to develop a phone that has a much deeper integration with the social network than any previous "Facebook phone."

On Friday, Mashable‘s Christina Warren joined CNN in Atlanta to assess the validity of the rumors. She also examined the potential advantages of a device with strong Facebook integration. Among other reasons, she pointed out that Facebook has a large app ecosystem that works well on the desktop but poorly on mobile devices. A deeply integrated device could help them bring Facebook’s apps to the mobile space — which is smart, given that users are spending increasing amounts of time using mobile apps compared to the web.

You can watch the full interview in the video above.

Image courtesy of Flickr, vincos

More About: Buffy, Facebook, Facebook Phone, htc, trending

HOW TO: Change Your Twitter Handle

Posted: 27 Nov 2011 06:42 AM PST


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

If you’re renaming or rebranding your business (or yourself, for that matter), and consequently need to change your Twitter username, you can do so without losing your followers.

Instead of creating a new Twitter account, head over to the Account tab on Twitter.com. There, you can change your username, as well as your email address and security settings.

You’ll also want to visit the Profile tab to update your picture and bio. In the bio section, it’s wise to let your followers know — for the next few weeks, at least — that you’ve changed your account username, and that you’ll continue to receive all of their @replies and direct messages at your new username.

Financial journalist Vince Veneziani decided to switch the name of his Twitter handle to @GreatestTrades ahead of the launch of his first book, The Greatest Trades of All Time.

Veneziani says he didn’t lose any noticeable number of followers when he changed his name, but it did take “a month or so before everyone officially recognized who I was again in their stream.” Since then, the new handle has helped build sales and name recognition, as well as attract new followers, he says.

Likewise, fashion startup Have to Have was compelled to change its Twitter handle after changing its name from WingTipIt. The young company leveraged several channels, including email, Twitter and Facebook, to alert existing users and the online fashion community at large about its rebranding efforts.

Cofounder Carla Holtze says it was a “tough decision … to move to a brand and a name that better represented our company,” but the feedback has been so overwhelmingly positive that it was worth the pain. “We have far more followers on Twitter than we had before,” she adds.

What to Do If Your Desired Twitter Handle is Taken

Not infrequently, businesses find that someone has already registered the Twitter handle of their company’s name.

If the account is active and the user is not impersonating your brand — even if you hold a trademark on the name — there’s little you can do. If someone is pretending to speak on behalf of your company, you have a few options.

First, you should try to contact the holder of the account in question by sending a tweet or finding a link to his or her contact details in the account bio.

If you’re unable to contact the holder, you can then try to work through Twitter to gain possession of the account.

Twitter says they will suspend an account and notify the account holder “where there is a clear intent to mislead others through the unauthorized use of a trademark.”

If, however, an account appears to be confusing users, “but is not purposefully passing itself off as the brand/company/product,” the account holder will be notified and allowed to keep the account if he or she clears up any potential confusion.

If the account is inactive altogether, Twitter says it “may also release a username for the trademark holder’s active use.”

If you aren’t able to get the name you want, it’s time to get creative. Think of a way to represent your name in more or fewer characters, or add an underscore. Just don’t let the obstacle keep you off Twitter altogether.

More About: features, mashable, Twitter

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