For the first year ever, total PC sales around the world were outpaced by total smartphone sales, in units at least, according to data released Friday by market analyst firm Canalsys. Nearly 488 million smartphones were shipped, compared to just (just!) 415 million PCs.

SEE ALSO: The PC: Old, Unsexy and Still King of The World

Of course, this doesn’t mean PCs are dead. The global PC market grew 15% in 2011, Canalsys says — almost entirely because of the 274% increase in tablet sales, which itself is largely due to the iPad. (Canalsys counts the tablet as a PC, which is not exactly a settled point).

The real story here is the inexorable rise of the smartphone. Total shipments of the devices grew by a whopping 63% over 2011. Again, this was partly driven by the success of Apple; thanks to the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S, the Cupertino company not only smashed the record for the most smart phones shipped globally by any single vendor in one quarter, it also displaced Nokia as the world’s leading smartphone vendor. (Nokia’s Symbian-based devices, very popular in the global market count as smartphones.)

For those of us in the U.S. who are quite familiar with — even blaze about — the iPhone’s market dominance, this global performance is something of an untold story. Apple shipped an incredible 93.1 million iPhones worldwide in 2011, a growth of 96% over 2010.

Figures like that simply have not been seen before. Nokia’s record was 28 million smartphones shipped in a quarter; Apple’s new record, set in Q4 of 2011, is 38 million. To be fair, the record would have been smashed with or without Apple; Samsung shipped 33 million smartphones in Q4.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, svariophoto

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/smartphone-sales-overtake-pcs/

In addition to confirming previous reports that the filing was imminent, the document contained numerous interesting facts that many have long been wondering, such as the company’s revenue, how much Mark Zuckerberg makes, and who the company’s highest-paid employees are.

There were also several key company insights disclosed, such as the factors that Facebook considers to be risks.

Additionally, Mark Zuckerberg himself wrote a letter to potential shareholders, in which he said that Facebook was created for a “social mission – to make the world more open and connected.”

It’s a fascinating look at Facebook, but also a massive document full of legalese and complicated facts. We’ve done our best to break down the most important figures and bits of information, but now you can test yourself: how well do you know the Facebook IPO? Take our quiz below and let us know in the comments what questions you have.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/facebook-ipo-test-your-knowledge/

Onboard technology can make flying a much more pleasurable and productive experience. But unless you book with a particular airline that offers Wi-Fi on every flight, you’re not guaranteed these services. There is often little or no difference between the price of flights with or without WiFi and live TV — but the difference in experience can make or break your flight.

A spokesperson from CheapAir.com said she didn’t know the exact number of flights with Wi-Fi but did say “from our experience, on domestic flights it’s about 20% for WiFi and 10% for Live TV. For international flights, both are less common but that will change over the next couple years.”

CheapAir will never say a flight has Wi-Fi unless it is certain. The service is not yet perfected: In some rare cases, you might book a flight thinking there is no Wi-Fi or live TV and be surprised that the flight does offer those amenities.

We also asked if travelers can find out which movies will be playing on flights. No, said CheapAir, but “flights with personal video monitors and movies-on-demand usually have a pretty decent number of choices and a lot of variety to cater to every jetsetter’s tastes.”

CheapAir.com did issue one caveat: “last minute maintenance problems can, on rare occasions, lead to an aircraft change with fewer features.”

Over time, though, more airlines will be updated with modern technologies that consumers demand, making the probably of ending up on a WiFi enabled plane — even with maintenance problems — a more likely scenario.

CheapAir started in 1989 and operated from a call center under the name 1-800-CHEAP-AIR. The company was founded in a University of Michigan dorm room by Jeff Klee.

While Mashable was interviewing CheapAir, we thought we’d take the opportunity to tap them for travel booking tips. Here’s what they said:

• “A great travel trip that isn’t widely known is that, very generally speaking, the cheapest day of the week to buy domestic airline tickets is Tuesday. In fact, Tuesday late afternoon or evening. This is because most weeks one or more airlines will announce a mid-week sale Monday night or Tuesday morning. To stay competitive, other airlines will typically match those sale fares and by Tuesday night all of them have will have joined. The sales usually last one to three days, but availability is best toward the beginning of that window.”

What do you think about CheapAir.com? Will you use it? How important is it to you to have Wi-Fi or live TV on airplanes when you travel? Tell us in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Clintus McGintus

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/find-wifi-flights-cheapair/

Century 21 has enlisted a team of celebrities for its first-ever Super Bowl commercial.

Reality TV star and business mogul Donald Trump, Pro Football Hall of Fame member Deion Sanders and Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno will help showcase what Century 21 feels are the primary characteristics of the company’s agents: “Smarter. Bolder. Faster.”

In the 30-second ad, which will air Sunday on NBC during a third-quarter commercial break, the trio is seen participating in the home-buying and home-selling process as a Century 21 agent one-ups each of them.

“The Super Bowl offers an unparalleled stage for showcasing our agents and their capabilities, and we wanted to make sure we were taking full advantage of the opportunity to quickly impact not only the more than 110 million viewers expected to tune in, but their social sphere as well,” Bev Thorne, Century 21‘s chief marketing officer, told Mashable. “Celebrities help us do just that — not only as stars of the commercial, but by building excitement for the ad on their own social networks.”

Historically, brands and agencies have often mixed in high-profile faces into their Super Bowl commercials, which this year cost $3.5 million each. On Sunday alone, for example, actor Jerry Seinfeld will be in Acura NSX‘s ad and actor Matthew Broderick (playing Ferris Bueller) reportedly will be in another ad.

SEE ALSO: Coca-Cola Polar Bears Will Watch, React to Super Bowl in Real Time

The celebrities tend to have strong online followings, which likely incite significant mentions on social networks for the brands shilling out the bucks to feature them. Trump, Sanders and Ohno have more than 1.6 million followers on Twitter and 840,000 fans on Facebook.

“All three are very active in the social space,” Thorne says. “Through social media we are able to amplify our message online.”

Philadelphia-based Red Tettemer + Partners created the ad for Century 21.

BONUS: Are These the 10 Funniest Super Bowl Commercials Ever?

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This ad from 2006 shows off a Sprint phone’s advanced theft-deterring technology.

This ad from last year was recognized by many as the best ad of Super Bowl XLV.

This commercial from 2010 features a young child laying down some serious house rules.

This ad from way back in 1999 was Monster.com’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial.

This commercial from 2010 made “the Old Spice guy” famous.

This famous commercial from 1999 is an all-time classic.

This 2003 ad shows what happens when jocks and desk jockeys collide.

This commercial from 2011 dealt with the horrors of accidentally hitting “Reply All.”

This ad from last year generated lots of laughs — and some controversy.

This ad from 2011 showed that love does, indeed, hurt.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/super-bowl-ad-century-21-donald-trump-deion-sanders-apolo-ohno/

Name: Stylitics

Quick Pitch: Mint.com for your closet.

Genius Idea: A new way to organize your wardrobe and track your spending.

If you’re like me, your sense of your wardrobe is slightly nebulous. You might be able to recall half the brands and items in it, but you wouldn’t be able to tell me, for instance, how often you wear pencil skirts compared to A-line skirts, or whether you tend to wear Banana Republic clothing more often with accessories from J Crew or HM.

Now you can. Stylitics, which launched in private beta in November 2011, is an analytics dashboard that does for your closet what Mint.com does for your finances.

Well, almost. What’s wonderful about Mint.com is that you only need enter your credit card details for it to work; the application automatically scans and compiles your spending data into charts and pie graphs. Stylitics likewise takes your data and makes it visual, but you have to input it yourself. Locating, categorizing and tagging everything in your closet is a labor-intensive process. Fortunately, it’s labor you can parcel out over time.

Stylitics is built around your personal style calendar (pictured below). Start by “checking in” your outfits every day, and pretty soon most of your closet will be saved to your profile. Over time, Stylitics will help you track how much you’re spending on clothes, the brands you wear the most, and what brands you tend to pair with other brands. You can also glance back at your calendar to see what outfits you wore when and at what temperatures.

Stylitics doesn’t just reward you with visual data. The company also doles out points for using the service, which you can redeem for free goods, discounts and other perks from brands and retailers. Each brand has its own profile page that allows you to connect with them elsewhere on the web.

Stylitics has raised $850,000 to date, primarily from angel investors, according to cofounder Zach Davis. The startup has no intention of pursuing an ad or affiliate revenue model, at least for now. Instead, Stylitics plans to generate revenue by working with brands, retailers and media partners to “give them a window into what their customers are wearing and buying, and how they’re being influenced in real time,” says Davis.

Next on the roadmap? Moving the site into public beta, and launching mobile apps that will help people add to and manage their Stylitics accounts on the go. The company is also working with several brands and retailers to give users the ability to sync their online purchases immediately to their Stylitics accounts. That feature would, in fact, make Stylitics a good deal more like Mint.com.
 

Invites

Stylitics is still in private beta, but is kindly inviting Mashable readers in. Just use the code mashable over on the signup page.

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.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/stylitics/

In 2010, branded content was one the largest trends among retailers and brands. In 2011, branded content shifted to branded entertainment. Now, in 2012, we’ll look toward content cultivation and aggregation.

By creatively using Pinterest and Tumblr, brands are becoming enthralled with consumer curation, primarily because these types of curated sites create non-linear paths to purchases.

First, retailers post visually appealing images and ideas that are accessible to the online user/consumer. Then, consumers post those images to curated sites. From there, retailers can build brand awareness by directly linking to product pages and encouraging purchase conversions.

“We’re demonstrating the power of peer-to-peer shopping search,” says Buyosphere’s Tara Hunt. “Algorithms are a long way off from picking up nuances that a person can. And personal taste is full of nuance.”

The future of ecommerce, search and social marketing is now tied to personality-influenced consumer curation. Here are 10 product discovery and sharing sites worth paying attention to.

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Launched in December 2011, Mulu is a social platform for sharing the things you love and making the world a better place at the same time. Mulu allows users to make product recommendations, ask for suggestions and earn money for themselves or a social cause they want to support.

Mulu CEO and founder Amaryllis Fox says, “Zooey Deschanel and HelloGiggles are using their Mulu to support 826 LA, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.”

Stipple leverages cloud services to power interactive commerce and content inside of web images. When people mouse-over a “Stippled” image, pins display useful information about the people, places, products and prices shown. The company’s patent pending technology syncs these commerce and content tags to images within its network.

“Brands lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue each month simply by not tagging their products in web photos,” says Rey Flemings, founder and CEO of Stipple. “Editorial images generate billions of pageviews, and if your product is in a photo, but people can’t find out what the product is, then your brand loses marketing value and revenue.”

Founded by digital pioneer and author, Tara Hunt, Buyosphere is the Quora for fashion, interiors and retail.

Want to find “the best iPad cases for under $100 bucks?” Instead of searching through thousands of irrelevant images, Buyosphere allows you to ask the question to its community, and then your peers make recommendations (with direct product links). Even better, Buyosphere was built with brands in mind — the companies are encouraged to actively participate on the platform. 

Launched in December 2011, Stylmee is the first iPad app that allows users in the fashion and interior design communities to create virtual 3D boutiques. Users are able to “design” their boutiques with custom flooring, fixtures, furnishing, accessories and apparel from their favorite retailers and brands. For every action, users earn points for their activities and can cash them in for retailer rewards.

The app combines online shopping and product sharing (via Twitter and Facebook integration) with social game mechanics in order to increase brand engagement. For brands and retailers, the application offers the ability to directly showcase the latest collections and obtain feedback and exposure through game mechanics. Products are viewed and judged worthy of placement within members’ personal boutiques.  

Considered Pinterest’s primary competitor, Svpply allows site members to keep track of the things they want to buy, and to browse a personal feed of products from across the web, curated and filtered by the people and stores they find interesting. Users with blogs can embed their Svpply activity via widgets and retailers can integrate an “add to Svpply” button on their ecommerce sites.

Lyst is a social shopping and product bookmarking site specifically targeted to fashion. The site allows users to follow their favorite designers, boutiques, bloggers and stylists for updates in their personally made style feeds. “Lysting items is a form of self-expression,” says Chris Morton, CEO of Lyst in an interview with Business Of Fashion. “The act of publishing their lysts also enables users to build their reputation within the online fashion world.”

A hybrid of Lyst and Svpply, Nuji allows users to save items they like from any online store using the platform’s web bookmarklet tool. Users can clip apparel from retail websites they like and purchase the items later. Plus, they can follow interesting users and earn rewards and discounts from retailers by tagging their favorite items.

For aspiring interior designers and overall design enthusiasts, Olioboard is an easy way to communicate complex artistic concepts visually. Use it as a brainstorming tool or simply to visually organizing thoughts.

Users are able to share, embed and email their creations to their blogs, as well as shop retailer products within the site. Olioboard plans to launch iPad and mobile apps mid-2012.

Olioboard was created by web design company Keele UX Inc. “Our main goal for Olioboard is to provide a design and decor-focused creative tool that essentially allows members to get inspired and ‘try it, before they buy it,’” says founder Sheilah MacSporran.

GetVega is list-creating service based entirely on visual content. GetVega users access the platform for product comparisons and reviews, create lists of products, and write reviews. Users can also use it as a social (or private) bookmarking site. Currently, the site is generating an impressive amount of content, from visual cookbooks to theme bars in Paris to the best guitarists. Users even create the proverbial “bucket list.”

Once a public list is created, other users can contribute (see: the quest for the best chocolate) and rate the quality of a list and its contents. With a much broader audience than just fashion, GetVega offers retailers the chance to create context between their brands and their customers’ lifestyles.

Styloko is the new kid on the block when it comes to product sharing and discovery. The site is hybrid of Pinterest, The Cools and what Google Boutiques wanted to be. Styloko is worth paying attention to because it caters to fashion, art and industry insiders – those with advanced knowledge of not so mainstream products.

The site allows users to add items they find to boards, upload images via the site’s mobile app, and set up specific sale alerts for the brands they follow.

The app combines online shopping and product sharing (via Twitter and Facebook integration) with social game mechanics in order to increase brand engagement. For brands and retailers, the application offers the ability to directly showcase the latest collections and obtain feedback and exposure through game mechanics. Products are viewed and judged worthy of placement within members’ personal boutiques.  

Considered Pinterest’s primary competitor, Svpply allows site members to keep track of the things they want to buy, and to browse a personal feed of products from across the web, curated and filtered by the people and stores they find interesting. Users with blogs can embed their Svpply activity via widgets and retailers can integrate an “add to Svpply” button on their ecommerce sites.

Lyst is a social shopping and product bookmarking site specifically targeted to fashion. The site allows users to follow their favorite designers, boutiques, bloggers and stylists for updates in their personally made style feeds. “Lysting items is a form of self-expression,” says Chris Morton, CEO of Lyst in an interview with Business Of Fashion. “The act of publishing their lysts also enables users to build their reputation within the online fashion world.”

A hybrid of Lyst and Svpply, Nuji allows users to save items they like from any online store using the platform’s web bookmarklet tool. Users can clip apparel from retail websites they like and purchase the items later. Plus, they can follow interesting users and earn rewards and discounts from retailers by tagging their favorite items.

For aspiring interior designers and overall design enthusiasts, Olioboard is an easy way to communicate complex artistic concepts visually. Use it as a brainstorming tool or simply to visually organizing thoughts.

Users are able to share, embed and email their creations to their blogs, as well as shop retailer products within the site. Olioboard plans to launch iPad and mobile apps mid-2012.

Olioboard was created by web design company Keele UX Inc. “Our main goal for Olioboard is to provide a design and decor-focused creative tool that essentially allows members to get inspired and ‘try it, before they buy it,’” says founder Sheilah MacSporran.

GetVega is list-creating service based entirely on visual content. GetVega users access the platform for product comparisons and reviews, create lists of products, and write reviews. Users can also use it as a social (or private) bookmarking site. Currently, the site is generating an impressive amount of content, from visual cookbooks to theme bars in Paris to the best guitarists. Users even create the proverbial “bucket list.”

Once a public list is created, other users can contribute (see: the quest for the best chocolate) and rate the quality of a list and its contents. With a much broader audience than just fashion, GetVega offers retailers the chance to create context between their brands and their customers’ lifestyles.

Styloko is the new kid on the block when it comes to product sharing and discovery. The site is hybrid of Pinterest, The Cools and what Google Boutiques wanted to be. Styloko is worth paying attention to because it caters to fashion, art and industry insiders – those with advanced knowledge of not so mainstream products.

The site allows users to add items they find to boards, upload images via the site’s mobile app, and set up specific sale alerts for the brands they follow.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tetsuomorita

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/social-shopping-content-curation/

If you’re not aware of Kim Dotcom, the man who changed his last name to pay homage to the World Wide Web, we offer you this brief history lesson. Born in Germany, Kim Schmitz (a.ka. King Kimble, a.k.a. King of the Kimpire, a.k.a. The Kim-pin), is a larger-than-life Internet hustler who hauled in money hand-over-fist by creating Megaupload, a site that essentially allows — er, allowed — people to share copyrighted content.

But that’s not all. His flair for the grandiose knew no terrestrial bounds. He loved to race fast cars and he coveted beautiful women — sometimes having them sprawl out on top of his massive, 6′ 7″ frame. His exact size remains somewhat of a mystery — it seems like each reporter uses a different measuring tape. His list of eccentricities goes on.

Check out our gallery and regale us with your favorite Kim Dotcom stories or anecdotes in the comments.

Additional reporting for this piece was contributed by Sam Laird.

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Until recently, Kim Dotcom was the top Modern Warfare 3 player in the world. He even apparently posted a video to prove it. We imagine it’s tough to maintain such a coveted position while being held in jail for multiple copyright violations.

The Megaupload kingpin claims to have paid $500,000 for the City of Aukland to put on a 2011 New Year’s firework display. In case any Kiwi were to forget who was funding the awesomeness, he produced a video replete with on-screen identification of his whereabouts during the show. “Yeah, that’s me in my personal helicopter!”

Dotcom stands 6 feet 7 inches tall, and tips the scales at 300 pounds, according to CNET. No one really knows his exact measurements though. All reports we’ve seen have him measured differently — some even define his weight by “stones.” Whatever his exact height and weight is, it’s easy to see that his physical size matches his personality and ego.

He legally changed his surname from Schmitz to Dotcom in homage to the beloved World Wide Web that made him famous.

He once fancied himself an anti-terrorism fighter by offering a bounty of $10 million for Osama bin Laden after 9/11. He started a group called Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism. He was so kind as to offer the authorities on the hunt a little of his own advice:

“Try Looking in Kandahar in Afghanistan. He visits his wife and daughter there at least once a month.”

Image courtesy of iStock, Vesnaandjic

Even when the game seemed to be up, Mr. Dotcom orchestrated a flamboyant exit. Police had to cut their way through electronic locks to a saferoom, where they found him clutching a gun.

Image courtesy of iStock, zentilia

Dotcom generated a spectacle wherever he went, often surrounded by cars and women, and wearing his trademark black outfit. He was even known to jump into hot tubs fully clothed. He made movies about himself racing cars, flirting with women, and riding in helicopters and private jets.

According to The New York Times, in 2001 he reportedly made more than $1 million when he allegedly bought shares in a struggling website, then falsely announced he would make a major investment, only to then sell his shares once the price went up after his announcement. He then defended himself by appearing on a popular late-night show, claiming people hated him because they didn’t like his lifestyle. He then fled to Thailand before ultimately being apprehended.

He commissioned this well-produced music video starring many celebrities supporting the site, ostensibly in part to rub Megaupload in the face of copyright holders. Much controversy ensued.

Until recently, Kim Dotcom was the top Modern Warfare 3 player in the world. He even apparently posted a video to prove it. We imagine it’s tough to maintain such a coveted position while being held in jail for multiple copyright violations.

The Megaupload kingpin claims to have paid $500,000 for the City of Aukland to put on a 2011 New Year’s firework display. In case any Kiwi were to forget who was funding the awesomeness, he produced a video replete with on-screen identification of his whereabouts during the show. “Yeah, that’s me in my personal helicopter!”

Dotcom stands 6 feet 7 inches tall, and tips the scales at 300 pounds, according to CNET. No one really knows his exact measurements though. All reports we’ve seen have him measured differently — some even define his weight by “stones.” Whatever his exact height and weight is, it’s easy to see that his physical size matches his personality and ego.

He legally changed his surname from Schmitz to Dotcom in homage to the beloved World Wide Web that made him famous.

He once fancied himself an anti-terrorism fighter by offering a bounty of $10 million for Osama bin Laden after 9/11. He started a group called Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism. He was so kind as to offer the authorities on the hunt a little of his own advice:

“Try Looking in Kandahar in Afghanistan. He visits his wife and daughter there at least once a month.”

Image courtesy of iStock, Vesnaandjic

Even when the game seemed to be up, Mr. Dotcom orchestrated a flamboyant exit. Police had to cut their way through electronic locks to a saferoom, where they found him clutching a gun.

Image courtesy of iStock, zentilia

Dotcom generated a spectacle wherever he went, often surrounded by cars and women, and wearing his trademark black outfit. He was even known to jump into hot tubs fully clothed. He made movies about himself racing cars, flirting with women, and riding in helicopters and private jets.

According to The New York Times, in 2001 he reportedly made more than $1 million when he allegedly bought shares in a struggling website, then falsely announced he would make a major investment, only to then sell his shares once the price went up after his announcement. He then defended himself by appearing on a popular late-night show, claiming people hated him because they didn’t like his lifestyle. He then fled to Thailand before ultimately being apprehended.

He commissioned this well-produced music video starring many celebrities supporting the site, ostensibly in part to rub Megaupload in the face of copyright holders. Much controversy ensued.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/megaupload-kim-dotcom/

Olapic’s service allows organizations to quickly and easily enable fans, readers or other types of audiences to submit photos of their own experiences at a game or event. Members of a crowd use social networks to submit their photos to the larger organization. The photos are then automatically collected on a subdomain and published after a moderator approves them. No new site, no new laborious curation process.

After launching in June by running a crowdsourcing campaign with the New York Daily News for the city’s gay pride parade, Olapic has found a niche with sports teams. It has since partnered with the New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts of the NFL; the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks; and international soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona. Olapic is also running a new contest with the Giants for Super Bowl XLVI.

“Everyone has a camera now and everyone is taking pictures, so what we’re trying to do is help these sports teams and brands leverage those photos in a new way,” Olapic co-founder Jose de Cabo said in an interview. “We want to help replicate that warm, fuzzy feeling people get again and again.”

Crowdsourcing photos isn’t a new idea, but Olapic makes it exceptionally easy to do so. Photographers snap a shot and upload it to a page of the team’s website or — easier yet — tweet it to the team’s Twitter handle. Tweeted photos are automatically sent to the corresponding team page, then go live after a moderator approves, which they can do in batches. When the submission is published, the photographer gets an automated tweet back letting them know.

Teams have so far used the service to run a variety of promotions, often for prizes like gear or tickets. The Mavericks told fans to imitate their star player’s signature move, and FC Barcelona asked fans to submit supportive photos when their star suffered an injury.

The Ravens ran a contest in which they painted a series of golden logos around the Baltimore area. Fans who found and submitted a picture of themselves with the hidden emblem were entered in a drawing for free tickets to the AFC Championship game last month.

Dave Lang, the Ravens’ digital media manager, said that the team ran a similar contest last year but received about four times as many submissions after adopting Olapic’s solution. Lang also said that several fans were so excited to see their photos on the Ravens’ official site that they would then capture screenshots to post to their own Facebook or Twitter pages.

While Olapic can be used for a variety of purposes, the marriage between social photo sharing and sports seems especially strong.

“Football isn’t just about the game. There are so many things that go on around it like fan clubs, tailgating, and traveling to road games,” Lang told Mashable. “So this is obviously something people get really excited about and a way to get them involved creatively on a more personal level.”

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/olapics-crowd-sourced-photo-campaigns-becoming-a-sports-trend/

Companies that rely on a visual or photographic web presence often find it difficult to convey their media on Twitter. Take, for instance, apparel brands that need to get social media eyes on their merchandise, or a design firm that seeks exposure. How can these types of businesses ensure that Twitter followers see their wares?

Ecommerce or design companies may prefer Facebook, due to its inherently visual and expansive nature. However, businesses these days can’t afford to bypass Twitter entirely — especially because many people keep their Twitter feeds open all day long.

Read on to discover four pillars of “visual tweeting,” or how to make sure that your Twitter followers get the picture.

1. Twitter Voice Should Be Consistent and Relevant

Obviously not all businesses can afford to hire a social media manager who monitors and shares across social channels full-time. However, try to keep the same individual tweeting most of the time so that your Twitter account’s voice and style remains consistent.

That said, people come to visual-centric brands for a reason. They follow these types of companies and individuals in the hope of discovering new clothing, products, design tips and inspiration in general. Therefore, be sure to provide that very thing.

Amazing new borderless display from LG. Now this looks like the future. cl.ly/D0TS

— Mike Rundle (@flyosity) January 2, 2012

Remember these two tips: Be descriptive and be relevant. If you want to share a new collection of animal print blouses or a fancy new gadget, explain as much about the product as you can in 140 characters. If you include detail, like in designer Mike Rundle’s tweet above, people will be more inclined to click when they’re intrigued by the prospect of a visual payoff. Then, either link or embed an image at the end of your description.

Inexplicable craving for Lucky Charms – does this ever happen to anybody else?

— Topshop (@Topshop) January 5, 2012

On the other hand, if your Twitter account represents a visual brand, don’t get too personal to the point of being off-topic (read: Lucky Charms?). People are following your business, not your personal account, for a reason. It’s a tough balance to strike, especially because people want to feel that a brand is relatable and human. A good rule of thumb is to keep every tweet related to your visually-pleasing products or personal brand, but to kill two birds with one stone by injecting a fun or off-beat voice at the same time.

2. Favor Native Images

Now that you’ve got a tweet’s description down, it’s time to attach an image. There’s no rule that says you must embed your images into your Twitter feed, but now that Twitter allows you to do it, why not make it easier for your followers?

Third-party photo apps like Instagram, TwitPic and yfrog allow you to attach images to a tweet that can be expanded immediately within a Twitter feed, so the user doesn’t have to jump to a photo app’s website. Keep in mind, however, that these apps perform differently on mobile. For instance, on Twitter’s iPhone app, Instagram kicks you out to a separate page, but you’re able to view a TwitPic image directly underneath the tweet. Perform a test-run to determine which app suits your business best.

3. Pageviews Are Paramount

Although embedding images into tweets is convenient and visually pleasing, you’re likely still clamoring for pageviews, and therefore, will want to link out to your site as often as possible. That means you’ll have to be more strategic than ever.

15% OFF for type lovers at @FontShop until Friday. Use ‘Veerle15′ in the promo code field. fontshop.com

— Veerle Pieters (@vpieters) January 4, 2012

Try putting attractive language at the beginning of a tweet that your followers can’t resist. Designer Veerle Pieters advertises a sale using caps lock, and then directs people to her site.

The Doctor is in. ow.ly/8jCMX

— NASTY GAL (@NastyGal) January 5, 2012

Above all, don’t be vague or else people won’t click through to see your product or design, ultimately losing you valuable pageviews. For example, women’s apparel company Nasty Gal may have a distinct and irreverent voice, but its tweets often do little to introduce attached links. How are we supposed to know that “The Doctor is in” refers to a blog post about Doc Martens?

4. Backgrounds Still Matter

Although more and more people are accessing Twitter profiles via simplified mobile design or dashboard applications like TweetDeck, you might still consider customizing your Twitter.com profile background.

Take a tip from Etsy, which set up a contest for users to submit a background design. Winning designs were featured as Etsy’s Twitter profile background for one month.

Or create your own background that reflects your product or design aesthetic. But be sure to take into account Twitter’s new profile design, which locates the tweet feed on the right-hand side of the page, and lists and suggestions on the left-hand side. Therefore, don’t let important images fall underneath your profile’s opaque boxes. For instance, can you spot the elusive third model in Topshop’s background above?

Instead of obscuring important information, create images that account for the placement and width of the Twitter feed, like designer Grace Smith, whose left-hand mini-bio adds a smart touch.

How do you or the brands you follow optimize a tweet to reflect its visual content? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, SteveByland

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/visual-tweets-tips/

Name: BetaBait

Quick Pitch: BetaBait connects startups with beta testers.

Genius Idea: Access to early adopters that doesn’t require PR skills.

Startups that want to reach early adopters often resort to contacting publications. But I have 3,640 unopened emails in my inbox that can attest to the efficiency of that route.

“For somebody who doesn’t have a public relations background and is tech focused, it can be pretty hard,” BetaBait co-founder Cody Barbierri says.

Barbierri does have a public relations background, and he’s figured out a way to share it with the startup founders who don’t. He’s busy promoting BetaBait, a site he hopes will net startups beta testers without any press.

Here’s how it works: Users who like to test apps sign up to receive daily emails. Startups sign up to have their services included in those emails for free. BetaBait keeps track of each app and feedback related to it in a database.

Barbierri is growing the database through the traditional PR route (see exhibit A here) and his connections. Thanks largely to these efforts, about 3,000 testers have signed on to BetaBait since it launched two months ago.

Now when a startup wants to reach those 3,000 people, they can do it through BetaBait instead of the press — the main advantage being that BetaBait isn’t very strict with its screening. As long as it’s functional and appropriate, it will be posted on the site.

Another advantage for the 750 participating startups is that BetaBait only reaches people who actually want to test apps. Why, you might ask, do these people want to spend their time testing apps? The startup is looking into building more incentives for app testing into its site, but Barbierri doesn’t think users need much motivation.

“The great thing about these early adopters is that they don’t need incentive,” he says. “They want to have an app first.”

BetaBait recently started offering startups the opportunity to sponsor its daily emails. It’s launching a redesign on Monday that includes Reddit-style voting and the option to receive news of new apps through an RSS feed rather than through e-mails. Barbierri says he’d like to see the list, which started as a practical project, become a more substantial site.

We’ve seen some crazy takes on breaching the disconnect between app makers and testers, including one that involved auctioning off equity. Can BetaBait’s solution, which relies heavily on testers’ desire to test, be more successful? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pressureUA

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.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/betabait/

As Czech Position reports, Google has agreed to several conditions put forth by the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection:

• Google will take photos closer to ground level to avoid photographing personal property over fences/walls.
• Google will give Czech citizens a method to demand that their property be removed from Street View.
• Google will blur license plates/registration information on vehicles.
• Google will pre-announce when it’s planning to photograph in Czech towns and cities.

The concessions are similar to ones that Google has made in other countries.

Google began Street View operations in the Czech Republic back in the spring of 2009, and put images online in the fall. But by December of that year, government officials shut down the service over privacy concerns.

Related Topics: Google: Outside US | Google: Street View

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land’s Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/LyjNoOUWXtY/czech-republic-gives-google-green-light-to-resume-street-view-110091

The figures come from Net Applications, which says it tracks about 160 million unique visits per month to a worldwide network of more than 40,000 sites.

According to Net Applications, Firefox and Safari also saw market share losses in January. While they were declining, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer gained 1.09%, its biggest monthly gain in at least two years.

One possible explanation is that a lot of people bought new PC computers over the holidays, and Internet Explorer’s market share grew in January because it’s the default browser there. But that didn’t happen a year ago; in January 2011, Explorer’s market share declined nearly a full percent. (IE did gain in February, 2011, as shown above.)

Net Applications ties Explorer’s gain and Chrome’s decline to the Google penalty which removed Chrome from search results for a number of browser-related search terms. Google penalized Chrome in early January after the company’s own botched sponsored blog post campaign ran afoul of Google’s search/webmaster guidelines.

In my searches this morning, the main Chrome page doesn’t appear on page one for “browser,” “web browser,” “download web browser,” “chrome,” “google chrome” nor “chrome browser.” I’m not sure that’s why Chrome’s market share dropped in January, but it’s an interesting theory to consider at minimum.

(tip via Computerworld)

Related Topics: Google: Chrome | Google: SEO | SEO: Spamming | Stats: Popularity | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land’s Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/g4fs2Yi-kEA/chromes-market-share-drops-in-january-was-it-due-to-googles-penalty-110097

I thought it would be handy for the beginners out there to have a few tips for finding issues with your tracking and some tricks to resolving those issues without tearing your hair out.

I’m Referring To Myself…

This is probably the most common error I find, your own domain is showing as a referrer to your site. Logically, this doesn’t make sense since anything that happens on your site should be an action of course, not a referral.

Most times, this means there is a page missing a script somewhere – the question is, how do we find that page? I have a few tricks for you.

• Run a tool called AnalyticsCheckUp.com and ask it to crawl your site and give you the status of GA scripts on every page. The excel sheet you receive within 24 hours (for the free version) will show “yes” you have scripts that match your Analytics account or “no” your scripts don’t match your analytics account, or you don’t have scripts at all,  for every crawled page on your site.

• Check out the “pages” section listed under content.  If you don’t have a gigantic site – you might notice which page is blatantly missing – likely that one doesn’t have scripts on it, and those that land on that page, and navigate to another page are the source of your referral problems

Where’s The Money?

I’ve said it a lot, I’ll say it again, tracking ecommerce transactions is a tad more complicated than just “turning ecommerce on” in the Google dashboard.

Scripts will need to be altered to pick up transaction data. Let’s face it, every shopping cart, booking engine, reservation system has a different label for every piece of information – there’s no way to automate that in Google Analytics. You’re going to need to set your scripts to work with your setup.

Most setups are going to require you to add the _addTrans(), _addItem(), and _trackTrans snippets to your code to ensure proper collection of data.

You are going to need to configure these very carefully and test your recorded transactions against your inventory/sales management system to ensure you’re tracking every transaction one time.

For more on setting up your shopping cart to track online revenue, see the Google Code Help section on Ecommerce Tracking.

Everything Just Tanked

Undoubtedly there will be a day when you login to your analytics and the dreaded flat line will appear. The panic of “I’m going out of business” will pass, and please understand that it is likely a tracking issue as opposed to a sales issue – nothing goes from gangbusters to nothing overnight – unless you’re Goldman Sachs.

First step: make sure nobody has been messing with the site. Call IT, call design, call programming – call anyone who could have access to the code or pages on the site (even via a database only) and find out if they’ve been “experimenting” recently. It’s likely the numbers took a nosedive because the scripts weren’t installed correctly after these changes, if they were installed at all.

If nobody will fess up – run the analyticsCheckup.com tool mentioned above to make sure every page has scripts. You are likely, as in 80% or more, to find your culprit here.

We recently had a site go live with the entire Google Analytics code commented out on a section of the site. It was done for testing before going live, but someone just missed it in the steps leading up to pushing it live, and the flat line was quick and disturbing until we figured out what was wrong and fixed it.

More Bounces Than A Bouncy House

Bounce rate is one of the main indicators of guest “satisfaction” on a website. If they hate the colors, navigation, or information –they’ll look at one page and leave immediately. That being said, bounce rate is pretty easy to manipulate if your analytics aren’t set up correctly.

For example, if page 1 has a Google Analytics script, but page 2 is missing the script – everyone just bounced when they hit page 2, even though they’re technically still on your own domain. I’ve seen site with a framed in element on the page cause some crazy numbers. If you click on an element in the framed in page and go to a page, either on your domain or on another domain you control – and the scripts don’t follow the click – that’s a bounce.

Cross-domain tracking is a big factor in bounce rates. If it’s not configured correctly, you’re going to see someone land on one domain, click a link to another – and get recorded as a bounce.

Here’s a practical example:

If you don’t have cross domain tracking set up in all three jumps above – jump one to jump 2 is a bounce, activity on URL 2 is not tracked, we will never know if the user spent money with us after they went to the second domain.

That’s important information to have, and you just inflated your bounce rate with information that is not accurate.

My Neighbors Are My Top Visitors?

I’ve written about using filters to get honest data here before, but we still see a lot of geographic activity come from a client’s own neighborhood. If you’re a mom pop pizza place, that’s great;  if you’re a resort in Orlando, and  locals aren’t renting from you – so why so much activity?

It’s more likely you’re recording activity from your own employees, whether they’re in the office, at home, visiting a friend or sitting at the Starbucks down the street, if their IP address isn’t filtered, their traffic is affecting your data – and not in a good way.

I would say, as a company that does a pretty good job with analytics, troubleshooting takes up about 75-80% of the time we spend on analytics for our clients, the installations are easy, it’s answering the “why isn’t this working?” question that takes a ton of time.

Hopefully, my hints and tricks above have helped you cut out some of the investigation time and tweaking and you’re back to making money and serving customers in a jiffy.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Beginner | How To | How To: Analytics | Search Analytics

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/UOCEfxCt0aA/5-common-tracking-problems-how-troubleshoot-to-fix-them-110106

From Search Engine Land:

• 5 Common Tracking Problems: How To Troubleshoot Fix Them

  I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with some clients’ analytics installs. Unlike types or broken code, or misspelled words – issues with tracking scripts don’t always raise their hands and scream, “Hey dummy, you deleted the /script tag!” I thought it would be handy for the beginners [...]

• Chrome’s Market Share Drops In January; Was It Due To Google’s Penalty?

  After 17 straight months of gains in market share, Google’s Chrome web browser dropped 0.17 percent in January, and the company that tracks browser market share suggests that it’s because Google penalized Chrome after a botched sponsored blog post campaign. The figures come from Net Applications, which says it tracks about 160 million unique visits [...]

• Czech Republic Gives Google Green Light To Resume Street View

  After more than two years, and a few important concessions from Google, the Czech Republic is letting the company resume its Street View service. As Czech Position reports, Google has agreed to several conditions put forth by the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection: Google will take photos closer to ground level to avoid photographing [...]

• StumbleUpon Responds To Concerns About Links Iframing

  On Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012, we published an article discussing some changes StumbleUpon made during their recent redesign which removed source links from their content pages and forced all users to view content from the site through an iframed toolbar, which they could not close if they were logged in. One of the things I have [...]

• Recent Findings On Captcha The User Experience

  The opinions on what makes a form or Web application user friendly may vary but most everyone dislikes Captcha fields. Some Captcha’s are so difficult to decipher they actually increase form and page abandonment. Along with the freedom the Internet provides humans, it is unfortunately humans who also created barriers to our free flow of [...]

• How To Use The AdWords Search Term View To Optimize Keywords Negatives

  Optimizing Keywords and Negatives is a task I recommend to my clients that they do regularly. In this How To, I will include some real-world experience along with the basics of how to use the AdWords Search Term View to optimize keywords and negatives. What Is Search Terms View? The AdWords Search Terms View shows [...]

• Search In Pics: Obama’s Google Hangout, SEO Cake Zuckerberg’s Desk

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Bing Drink In A Glass: Image via Flickr. Behind The Scenes On President Obama’s Live Google [...]

• Google’s New Privacy Policy May Violate HIPAA, Congresswoman Says

  Several members of Congress continued to express reservations about Google’s new privacy policy after a closed-door meeting on Thursday, with one House member saying that Google’s handling of sensitive medical searches may violate HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Members of the House Energy and Commerce committee grilled Pablo Chavez, Google’s director of [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Social Media Ad Spend: 89% On Facebook, 39% On Twitter 18% On Google+
• Europeans, EPIC Bring More Scrutiny To Google Privacy Changes
• 5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Affiliate Program Today
• Study: More Facebook Users Comment Rather Than Like Content Power Users Drive Activity

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications Portal Features

• Google changes enable ‘per country’ blog takedowns, BBC News
• What is the mystery “entertainment device” Google is testing?, GigaOM

Business Issues

• Facebook Is Valued at $94 Billion in Auction on Private Market, BusinessWeek
• The New York Times’ About.com: From All-Star To Albatross, paidContent.org
• Zuckerberg Tops Google Founders With $28.4 Billion Facebook Haul, BusinessWeek

Paid Search Contextual

• Finding Lost Impressions with the Share of Voice Report in Microsoft Advertising adCenter, adCenter Blog

Searching

• Analyzing Super Bowl 46 with Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Bing: Our Favorite Features, www.bing.com
• I Switched to Bing on the iPhone and It Didn’t Kill Me, thenextweb.com
• New England Patriots Rush Ahead of New York Giants with 50% More Yahoo! Searches, Yahoo Search Blog
• Why Google Thinks SPYW is a Good Idea and You Probably Don’t, www.wolf-howl.com
• Yahoo! Brings the Super Bowl to You, ycorpblog.com

SEO SEM

• 4 Social SEO Mistakes to Avoid, Search Engine People
• Exclusive: Amazon.com buys TeachStreet, GeekWire
• Google News Submissions Can Take “Several Weeks”, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Plus will build your search traffic, Conversation Marketing
• How Ads Can Affect Organic Search Results, Search Engine People
• How Affiliate Sites Can Best Exploit SEO, Search Engine Watch
• Keywords Tool Update, Wordtracker
• Kick-Start Your PPC Campaign in 6 Easy Steps, Search Engine Watch
• SEO – The Optimized Future: SEO in the Year 2022, BruceClay.com
• SEO Impact of Google’s Search Plus Your World, www.practicalecommerce.com
• Small Business SEO: Bridging the SMB/Vendor Gap, Outspoken Media
• The Hidden Factors in Accomplishing Your Online Marketing Goals – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• Video: Google Webmaster Report, Title Tags Missing, AdSense Facebook IPO, Search Engine Roundtable
• What Time Does The Super Bowl Start, He Wrote As A Headline To Game The Google Results, deadspin.com
• Why Aren’t More People Talking About Google+ Direct Connect?, www.portent.com
• Why Focusing on CPL is a Really, Really Bad Idea, PPC Associates

Social Media

• Facebook Tests Photo Viewer That Encourages Comments, Google+ Comparisons, TechCrunch
• The Super Simple Guide to Using and Marketing Through Pinterest – Part Two, Search Engine Guide

Video, Music Image Search

• Flickr Trends – January 2012 (page 1), www.flickr.com
• Flickr Trends – January 2012 (page 2, www.flickr.com
• Trover: Local Search and Discovery Through Images, Search Engine Watch

Web Analytics

• Super Cool Data Visualizing Tool Views for Exploratory SEO Analysis, internetmarketingninjas.com

Related Topics: SearchCap

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land’s Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/31Fu1cagB3M/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-3-2012-110117

Panda In The Pipelines

There’s a mention of the Panda algorithm update that we wrote about last week, but it also includes a somewhat cryptic reference to being more integrated into Google’s “pipelines.”

We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines.

Sounds like Panda is baked into things even more firmly than before, which I guess is bad news for any sites that were affected negatively over the past year.

Fresher Results

Google says it made several “minor updates” to the freshness algorithm update that happened back in November.

Date Detection

On a somewhat similar note, the update also says that Google has improved how it detects the date of a web page (document), and that means searchers should see “fresher, more timely results, particularly for pages discussing recurring events.”

Autocomplete

There are two updates related to autocomplete: Google says it’s now faster at delivering predicted queries, and the spelling corrections are now “more consistent with those used in search.”

Speaking of spelling…

Google says it’s doing a better job with “full-page replacement” — i.e., showing an entire page of results for a correctly spelled word and ignoring the searcher’s misspelled word/query. There’s also a change that Google says will help it give more accurate spelling corrections for rare queries.

News queries

Google says it’s improved how it decides when to blend news results into the search results page. The change makes Google “more responsive to realtime trends.”

That’s a quick overview of about half of the January tweaks on Google’s list. Here’s the full list on Google’s Inside Search blog.

Related Topics: Google: News | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land’s Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

Article source: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/Vg2wBdBzTnE/googles-january-search-update-110121

Immediately after its release, the EULA for iBooks Author was torn apart by the tech press and copyright analysts. The original wording stated that authors would only be able to sell books created in iBooks Author in Apple’s iBookstore.

The broadness of the terms made it appear Apple was claiming ownership of the content generated in iBooks Author.

With the 1.0.1 update [Mac App Store link], the language in the EULA is now much more clear on what Apple’s actual policies.

Here is the old agreement:

B. Distribution of your Work. As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, your Work may be distributed as follows: if your Work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means.
(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions:
(a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.

This is the new agreement:

B. Distribution of Works Generated Using the iBooks Author Software. As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, works generated using iBooks Author may be distributed as follows:
(i) if the work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute it by any means;
(ii) if the work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service) and includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, the work may only be distributed through Apple, and such distribution will be subject to a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary); provided, however, that this restriction will not apply to the content of the work when distributed in a form that does not include files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author. You retain all your rights in the content of your works, and you may distribute such content by any means when it does not include files in the .ibooks format generated by iBooks Author.

The new agreement makes it clear that Apple is only claiming sales exclusivity for the .ibooks format. If a user wants to tapiBooks Author to create a PDF version of an eBook, that PDF can be sold in any online bookstore, not just iBooks.

Users can only sell .ibooks formatted books within the iBookstore.

Apple further clarifies that “you retain all your rights in the content of your works.”

We’re glad that Apple clarified the terms of conditions on the software. While it’s clear the main goal in creating the software was to foster the creation of ebooks in the .ibooks format, the tool is easy to use and stacks up well against the competition.

Are you glad Apple clarified the iBooks Author EULA? Sound off in the comments below.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/ibooks-author-eula-update/

Virgin CEO George Whitesides discussed the coming test flights at a meeting in January with the Aerospace Defense Forum. The coming test flights mark the first time the spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo will fire the actual rocket that it will use to fly into sub-orbit, 60-plus miles above the Earth.

In the first part of the flight, SpaceShipTwo is carried into the air by WhiteKnightTwo, a special plane built specifically for that purpose. Virgin has been performing test flights that involve SpaceShipTwo gliding back down to the ground for more than a year.

“Over the next few months we’re integrating parts and pieces of the hybrid rocket motor into the SpaceShipTwo airframe, completing ground testing of the rocket motor, and then [will] try and start powered flight over the summer,” Whitesides told SPACE.com. The tests will continue over many months, and Whitesides says he hopes they’ll get to space altitudes by the end of the year.

He also said he hopes Virgin Galactic will begin commercial operations by 2013. Originally, Virgin had planned to start ferrying passengers into space by 2008. That was later pushed back to 2010, then 2012.

SEE ALSO: Virgin Galactic to Charter Suborbital Flights to Space With NASA

Natasha Pavlovich, a Serbian-American who was one of the first people to buy a ticket on Virgin Galactic, isn’t getting her hopes up that the 2013 date will stick.

“I wish it would have happened sooner,” Pavlovich told Mashable. “But in light of safety, there’s no time limit. I don’t think it’ll be for another several years, because every year for the last six years they’ve been saying ‘next year.’”

The multiple delays haven’t dampened Pavlovich’s determination to fly into space, however: “I’d still like to venture into space and carry the American and Serbian flags up there,” she says.

Virgin isn’t deterred either. Even though it hasn’t put a single passenger in orbit yet, it’s already begun construction of a second pair of vehicles — another WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo — in anticipation of demand for flights. Whitesides said they’ve already collected $60 million on tickets, representing $100 million worth of business.

Are you optimistic that Virgin Galactic will start flying for real next year? Or do you think it’ll be delayed again? Let us know in the comments.

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/virgin-galactic-rocket-test/

Working with hundreds of speakers as an event producer, I’ve learned a lot about what makes a speaker truly great. Below, four nationally recognized speakers — all of whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with — share their insights on how to give a stellar presentation that resonates with any audience and gets them invited to speak again.

Know Your Audience

Whether you’ve been asked to speak or you’re pitching a session, the first step is to research your potential audience. Knowing the audience provides speakers with information necessary to craft an on-point, well received presentation. You will want to know several things about the audience including, their level of sophistication in the area you’re presenting, learning objectives and topics of interest.

Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald’s, has been speaking publicly since 1997. “If you don’t know your audience, you are pretty much guaranteed to fail,” says Wion. “Your presentation could be too rudimentary, too advanced or completely off topic without understanding the core audience.”

There are numerous ways to get to know an audience in advance of an event. These can include contacting event organizers to ask about audience make-up, researching past events, reading the agenda, checking out other speakers and finding out what other session topics are being offered. Marcy Massura is Weber Shandwick’s digital community manager and the co-founder and president of the largest North American regional blogging organization, BlogCrush. She says, “Understanding your audience is key to your success.” In preparation for any speaking engagement, Massura “[asks] for attendee lists and often watches videos of previous speakers. Keep in mind, many attendees return to the same conference year after year.”

Knowing the audience puts you at a distinct advantage because your session will be more likely to resonate. This is something Jeffrey Hayzlett, best-selling author and former CMO of Kodak, knows. Publicly speaking for over 20 years and at least 70 times a year, Hayzlett always takes the time to know his audience because, as he states, “the audience walks away appreciating that the speaker has taken the time to understand them and be honest with them.”

Selecting the Right Session

Crafting the right session topic with your audience in mind is a must. Select an on-point topic and work with event organizers to get your session approved. Do your research and ask producers what other sessions are being offered, read the agenda and abstracts and all the while keep in mind what expertise you have to offer. Wion shares, “It is important to have a well-rounded set of topics within a given event, so I am always flexible in what I present and try to tailor it to be complementary and not repetitive to the rest of the event’s content.”

Charlene Li, founding partner of Altimeter Group, has been speaking publicly since 1996. When crafting her keynotes Li looks “at the specific needs of the audience and then prioritizes. I find that many sessions either try to cover too much or they are not focused on what the audience wants and needs to learn.”

In addition to having the right topic and including relevant issues, great sessions also keep an audience interested and engaged. This might mean you will have to be flexible, and if speaking often, keep reshaping your presentation in order to avoid getting stale.

Putting Your Presentation Together

Having worked with many speakers, I’ve found the process of putting a presentation together varies dramatically, and all depends on what works best for the individual.

If this is your first time putting together a deck, selecting a presentation software tool will be the first step. There are lots of fantastic presentation software options including PowerPoint, Keynote and Prezi. You may want to play around with several of them to find what works best for you.

Many speakers prefer PowerPoint because it is easy to work with and easy for audiences to follow. Massura explains, “People think linearly — brains like concepts on separate pieces of ‘paper.’ PowerPoint gives a sense of progress as the slides change. It might be old school, but it works.”

Whatever tool you use, do not rely on it too heavily. What truly matters is the content and your delivery. Wion advises, “The best use of any presentation tool is to help organize your thoughts … but that should be the extent of the use of these tools. Successful speakers know the material well enough to work from scribbled notes as much as a glitzy presentation.”

For those who expect to speak at numerous events, having several presentations on a variety of topics and simply reshaping them to fit the particular event and audience is suggested. Both Massura and Li present at a variety of events throughout the year. Massura often works “for many months on a new presentation. I might use it with small changes for more than one conference.” Li shares that in order to keep her keynotes fresh and on-point, she has “a few base presentations which I modify for each speech.”

After selecting the right presentation software tool, you’ll need to fill it with relevant and compelling content. Presentations containing bright and exciting images, few words and which move along at a good pace tend to do better. “I use very few words on my slides,” says Massura. “I want people to listen to me — not be reading the screen. The right visuals can make or break your deck.”

This may be difficult at first, as you will undoubtedly have lots of things you’ll want to put on slides, but as Hayzlett advises, “Do not come to the stage with hundreds of slides, each with 50 bullet points that no one can read. Understand that your audience is filled with “real people” — people who are running the gauntlet of business every day.”

Finally, you will want to practice. Being prepared allows speakers to do their best on presentation day. Even the most seasoned speakers practice. Keynote speaker Li believes, “The most important thing to practice is your opening — you need to have this nailed because if you get a last minute case of the jitters, your practice will put you into auto-pilot and sweep you into the momentum of the presentation. But just as important is your close — when you step off the stage, what will be the last impression that you leave?”

While practicing is recommended and even encouraged, do not turn your presentation into a memorized monologue. Massura practices but avoids “full fledged rehearsals because they can really spoil the ‘magic’ of a presentation.” So what is the right amount of rehearsal? Wion advises “Practice to the point that you know your material to a conversational point but don’t over practice to the point that you can’t adjust.”

It’s Presentation Time

If you’ve taken the time to know your audience, selected the right session topic, pulled together a presentation you’re proud of and practiced sufficiently, this part should come together easily.

Wowing the audience is a surefire way to leave a lasting impression, and the best presentations all share key aspects: They connect with the audience, tell a story and teach something valuable. How can you incorporate all three?

Connect through simple gestures, like making eye contact rather than looking down at notes, moving around and even getting off the stage. Hayzlett reminds us, “Your connection with the audience is a function of your energy, passion, preparation and genuineness.”

Wion of McDonald’s does several things to make his presentations stand out. “I love to wear my vintage Mayor McCheese t-shirt — helps me represent the brand in a different and memorable way. And I hand out freebies, because who doesn’t like free food?” Handing out swag as a reward for people who ask and answer questions is a guaranteed way to get audiences involved.

Another successful trick is to incorporate a company you know will be in the crowed, says Li. “I will ask the organizers if there are companies that are held in high regard, or [have] knowledge of ‘inside baseball.’ I’ll put up a screenshot of the company and ask them to stand up. They are usually surprised and thrilled to be included and recognized in the presentation!”

Telling a compelling story will help you avoid putting on a “Death by PowerPoint” presentation. According to seasoned speaker Wion, “the emotion of a tale is remembered long after even your most compelling numbers have faded from memory.”

Finally, be sure your presentation is not only entertaining but also educates. Keep in mind people attend conferences with the hope of learning new strategies and tactics. Those presentations that meet learning objects stand out.

It’s Not Over Yet

After you’ve finished speaking, it’s a perfect time to continue your relationship with the audience. “I love meeting the audience following my presentations. We take photos and I always encourage them to post to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I love staying in touch via social media and keeping the conversation going,” shares Hayzlett. Continue to network, build your community and wow long after you walk off stage. Presenting creates a perfect opportunity to build your personal brand, so take advantage.

Be sure to get feedback from attendees and event organizers so that you can make your next presentation even more memorable. “One way to do this is to go back and read the Twitter feed to see what resonated and answer questions that people may have posed,” says Li. Whether you read the Twitter feed, talk to people post-presentation, or review evaluations from event organizers, don’t miss out on an opportunity to grow and improve your presentation skills.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kupicoo

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/improve-business-presentation/

They’re also changing how the world’s biggest broadcast media companies do business.

Mashable recently spoke with top executives and personalities from the sports behemoth ESPN during the company’s biggest week of the year for Super Bowl XLVI. The interviews reveal how the evolution of digital impacts the original mass broadcast medium — what is traditionally thought of as “radio.”

Perhaps nothing shows the shifting landscape better than a recent name change for ESPN’s audio division. Until about three years ago, the entire division — the company’s second-most consumed medium, behind its ubiquitous television presence — was known simply as ESPN Radio.

“Then we said, ‘Looking at the trends out there, we shouldn’t be just ESPN Radio,’” Mo Davenport, a senior vice president and general manager of the company’s audio division, said. “We recognized that we should really be ESPN Audio and realign ourselves with saying that we want to serve sports fans at any time, wherever they are, and on whatever platform they want to be served on.”

That increasingly expands beyond traditional broadcast. In 2011, ESPN Audio podcasts were downloaded 358 million times — a 129% percent increase from 2010. A quarter of digital listening was done through mobile devices, according to company representatives. On the ESPNRadio.com website, more than 10 million listening hours are logged per month, according to measurement company AndoMedia.

During Super Bowl XLVI week, the sports world’s most elaborate annual media circus, ESPN Audio combines with the television division to create 110 hours of programming. The avalanche of content is produced by some 350 producers, writers, editors, event staff and other personnel, according to company representatives. ESPN Audio executives said they expect much of their Super Bowl XLVI week programming to be consumed digitally.

But behind the microphone, it’s social media that has had the biggest impact. Mike Golic, one of the co-hosts of ESPN’s hit radio show Mike Mike in the Morning, said that social media’s “immediacy of reaction” has changed the way he and partner Mike Greenberg operate.

When Golic and Greenberg began their show more than a decade ago, they would solicit listener feedback via phone — and even fax. Assistants would print out faxed-in opinions during breaks to be read and discussed on the air. Now, as their show is both broadcast live on radio stations and packaged for future download, they receive a constant stream of user feedback via Twitter.

Greenberg said that’s especially true during Super Bowl week, “when show prep is basically your life,” and he and Golic report on and discuss not just the game itself but the hullabaloo surrounding its build-up.

“The world has become one continuous conversation that everyone can take part in now,” Greenberg said. “Now you feel like the leader of a huge chat and you’re just in charge of steering it. It’s a fascinating dynamic.”

According to Davenport, that philosophy applies to the ESPN Audio’s executive level too.

“It’s not longer a one-way street, where you have athletes and producers saying, ‘I’m giving you this, be happy with it,’” he said.

“That influence of digital technology is only going to continue to grow,” Davenport said. “It’s going to massively impact our business, but I think that the culture we have around here is, ‘Bring it on.’ People who decide that their businesses can stay static are the ones who will be left in the dust.”

Image of Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg courtesy of Frank Dale/ESPNRadio.com

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/how-social-media-changed-espn-audios-super-bowl-week/

Stephen Colbert asked his fans to share his passion for space by donating to NASA to support its work with the International Space Station.

Colbert rallied behind NASA’s efforts to create alternative vaccines to fight diseases — including salmonella and pneumonia — that have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

“I love looking up at the stars and wondering what distant planets are still out there and to be discovered and can we frack them for methane,” Colbert joked in his public service announcement released on NASA’s website on Thursday.

NASA has long enjoyed Colbert’s support. In 2009, Colbert urged his viewers to nominate his last name when NASA asked the public to suggest names for the Node 3, a room in the space station. Colbert won the majority of votes, but NASA didn’t want to name the space module after him. The space station chose the name Tranquility instead.

“We don’t typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations in a NASA statement.

NASA did name the treadmill the astronauts train on after Colbert. It’s called COLBERT, which is an acronym for “combined operational load bearing external resistance treadmill.” But the treadmill isn’t enough for Colbert — he wants the space station to create caramel space chip swirl ice cream. Doesn’t that sound tasty?

Colbert has become a sort of spokesperson for the space agency. Does his love for NASA motivate you to donate to space research?

Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/stephen-colbert-supports-nasa/