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Mashable: Latest 9 News Updates - including “Verizon Plans to Put Skype on its Phones [REPORT]” |  |
- Verizon Plans to Put Skype on its Phones [REPORT]
- Google Buzz Gets Some Serious Privacy Tweaks
- Tweeting Dog Collar Posts Your Dog’s Movements to Twitter
- Control Your iPhone From Your Couch With Bowtie
- Wired Magazine for iPad Will Launch By Summer
- Google Co-Founder: China Issue Could Be Resolved in a “Year or Two”
- Google Pulls Olympic Luge Logo After Backlash
- What Happens in Vegas, Goes on Foursquare [PIC]
- How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media
- HOW TO: Make a Google Buzz Desktop App
| Verizon Plans to Put Skype on its Phones [REPORT] Posted: 13 Feb 2010 06:55 PM PST 
For consumers, having Skype pre-loaded on a phone — which Bloomberg says is to be on a range of low and high-end handsets — might mean that instead of paying for a voice plan (or a more expensive voice plan), the option to get a better data plan and just use Skype when making calls might make more sense. Bloomberg quotes IDC analyst Rebecca Swensen:
Although Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the US, it faces stiff competition from AT&T. Although AT&T’s service is pretty universally reviled, AT&T has the iPhone and that continues to drive customers to the carrier. While AT&T is expected to lose exclusivity at some point, it is unclear when or if Verizon will get to carry the device. As it stands, AT&T will be the 3G data provider for Apple’s iPad this April. Skype works on AT&T’s WiFi network and a 3G version is in the works as well. Depending on which carrier can offer 3G access to Skype first — and on what phones — could depend on how valuable this feature is. If given the choice, would you drop your voice plan and just use Skype over 3G data for making and receiving calls? Let us know! Reviews: Skype, iPhone Tags: 3g data, mobile voip, Skype, verizon, voip
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| Google Buzz Gets Some Serious Privacy Tweaks Posted: 13 Feb 2010 05:46 PM PST 
Google Buzz only launched four days ago but it’s already taking off in a big way. Google already made some changes to how Buzz works on Thursday but today the company has created a blog post highlighting some additional changes — including some ways to turn Buzz off altogether.
 One other note — at the bottom of the page in Gmail, you can select a turn-off Buzz button. This will hide Buzz from your Gmail account, although you can turn it back on without losing your information.  Reviews: Flickr, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Reader, Twitter Tags: gmail, google buzz, privacy
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| Tweeting Dog Collar Posts Your Dog’s Movements to Twitter Posted: 13 Feb 2010 05:15 PM PST 
Well, sort of. The collar detects when your dog moves or make a sound, then randomly selects one of 500 pre-written tweets to post to Twitter. Your dog has to be within a reasonable distance of the room with your computer in it, though; the tweets are sent wirelessly from the collar to a USB receiver that has to be plugged into a supported Internet-connected device. Since the selection is random, the tweets don’t really represent what your dog is doing. It’s more a placebo that reminds you that your beloved pet is out there doing something, whatever it is. They’re cute though. A couple examples: “I finally caught that tail I’ve been chasing, and . . . OOUUUCHH!” and “I bark because I miss you. There, I said it. Now hurry home.” It sounds like it would get redundant, but Mattel Brands President Neil Freidman said “”Eventually it will certainly repeat itself, but people repeat themselves, too.” True enough. Puppy Tweets will cost $29.99 when it launches in the United States this fall at e-tailers like Amazon. We’d be remiss not to mention when seeing this that it resembles the talking dog collar in the Pixar film Up — everybody else has mentioned it! Sadly, Puppy Tweets isn’t nearly as advanced as that one. Reviews: Twitter Tags: dogs, mattel, pets, twitter
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| Control Your iPhone From Your Couch With Bowtie Posted: 13 Feb 2010 04:15 PM PST 
A Customizable iTunes ControllerWhen Bowtie first hit the scene in the Fall of 2008, it was a simple, themeable iTunes controller. If you’ve never used an iTunes controller like CoverSutra or Ecoute, you’re missing out. Simply put, it’s a really nice way to customize your iTunes playback experience, plus you can modify how album art and playback information is displayed on your Mac desktop, so when iTunes is minimized, you can still see what’s playing and rate, skip or view album art.  Bowtie 1.0 has received a big overhaul on the backend. It uses less memory, connects to Last.fm in a new way and is fully extensible in the future. The one big difference is that search — a much-loved feature in the alpha and beta releases — has been removed. Search was great because you could search for a song from Bowtie and start playing it. Unfortunately, as the developer says, that created some performance problems, led to crashes and was just buggy. The feature will be coming back, but when it does, it’s going to work the right way.  Bowtie is still ultra themeable (you can create your own themes by reading this guide), which is one of the things that first drew me to the app. I like being able to customize my desktop and lots and lots of designers have created some pretty awesome themes. You can check out MacThemes and Iconpaper to get more skins. Bowtie for iPhoneThe newest edition to the Bowtie family is Bowtie for the iPhone. With this iPhone app, you can control the music playing on your iPhone or iPod touch using Bowtie for Mac or the Bowtie iPhone Controller for Windows. Why would you want to do that? Here’s a scenario that isn’t unfamiliar to me: Say you have some really badass speakers that have an iPhone connector dock. You like to plug your iPhone into the dock to pump music through your living room or office or whatever. However, the big problem is when you want to change tracks or pause the music. Rather than walk to the device to manually change what’s playing, why not use your computer? It’s really nice and it works incredibly well. Check out these screenshots, which show how what you select in Bowtie will play or pause what’s playing on your iPhone or iPod touch.   Bowtie for the iPhone is 99¢ in the App Store. It’s a pretty cool program if you ever find yourself using your iPod or iPhone as a music player. Another thing to note — Bowtie for iPhone will work with the iPad on day one. The developer says that other iPad-centric features will be added too. Bowtie for Mac and the Bowtie Remote for Windows apps are free. All three apps are available now. Do you use any iTunes controllers? What’s your favorite? Let us know! Reviews: Windows Tags: apple, bowtie, iphone apps, itunes, mac, software
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| Wired Magazine for iPad Will Launch By Summer Posted: 13 Feb 2010 03:51 PM PST 
Back in November, Wired publisher Condé Naste announced that it would be working on an edition of Wired for the Apple tablet before Apple even confirmed the existence of such a tablet. Other Condé Naste publications were expected to follow. The announcement drew some ridicule since the iPad was just a rumor at the time, but it turns out the publisher wasn’t bluffing; Wired’s Creative Director Scott Dadich and Adobe’s Jeremy Clark have been working on the Wired iPad app for six months now. The fruits of their labor: a digital version of the magazine on which you can flip horizantally to move between stories and vertically to read whatever story you’ve settled on. Rich media like expandable images, 360-degree ad views, and embedded videos are also part of the presentation. While specific pricing hasn’t been announced, expect it to cost less than a subscription to the print version. Tags: Apple iPad, media, Wired
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| Google Co-Founder: China Issue Could Be Resolved in a “Year or Two” Posted: 13 Feb 2010 03:18 PM PST 
Brin was answering a question about his responsibility to the Chinese people who Q&A host Chris Anderson said would “feel all completely abandoned” if Google leaves. Brin went on to say: “A lot of people might think I am naive and that might be true.” Google released a statement of intent to pull out of China rather than acquiesce to the Chinese government’s mandates of political censorship of search results and other Internet data. Though the company hasn’t flipped the switch off yet, the announcement has placed considerable pressure on China internationally. The country has been criticized by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others. It’s pertinent to note that Brin is believed to have been the major figure at Google who pushed for the decision to announce intentions to leave China. The decision was announced after hackers of unknown affiliation working within mainland China broke into the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. The Chinese government denies involvement, but bloggers and journalists have widely speculated that the attacks were executed by the Chinese government itself. Brin believes the question of government involvement is irrelevant. He said “if there were a Chinese agent, it might represent a fragment of policy” that wouldn’t necessarily reflect on the government as a whole. Other web services have been hacked in the past, and Brin said their failure to come forward has led to unpreparedness in their peers. “It turns out a number of companies were aware of certain attacks on their systems … if more companies were to come forward in respect to these security incidents, I think we'd all be safer.” [img credit: jurvetson] Reviews: Gmail, Google Tags: china, Google, politics, Sergey Brin, TED, ted 2010
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| Google Pulls Olympic Luge Logo After Backlash Posted: 13 Feb 2010 12:07 PM PST 
The logo was replaced with a similar one depicting a snowboarder instead of a luger. The New York Daily News managed to find a picture of the logo that was pulled; you can see both the new graphic and the original one below. After Google posted the logo, many people called it poor taste on Twitter. User jennytondera tweeted, “google luge logo. really, google? not okay.” On the other hand, some other folks took it to be a fitting tribute. Individual sensibilities differ regarding this, but Google apparently decided to play it safe by replacing the logo. What do you think — fitting tribute or bad taste? Original Logo: Luge New Logo: Snowboarding [Thanks, Shauna] Reviews: Google, Twitter
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| What Happens in Vegas, Goes on Foursquare [PIC] Posted: 13 Feb 2010 11:21 AM PST 
8% of U.S. companies say they’ve fired an employee for unacceptable social media activity. That can be for something like sharing private company information, but it can also be for admitting misconduct — for example, foolishly sending out a tweet saying that you called in “sick” to work in order to play volleyball Tuesday afternoon. With Foursquare’s check-ins, you can give too much info about your wild nightlife to your boss. Read the comic below and enjoy a little laugh.  Tags: comic, foursquare, status this
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| How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media Posted: 13 Feb 2010 10:11 AM PST 
What's the hottest trend in fashion right now? Social media of course. As part of fashion week prep on Wednesday, I decided to do a quick search for #nyfw (New York Fashion Week, going on right now in New York) on Twitter. To my surprise, conversations ran the gamut — some Tweeters chimed in about the pending snow storm waiting to blanket the city, and others were buzzing about the Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs and Rodarte shows being streamed online. When I turned away for half a second (literally) to grab my coffee, I was met with the words "43 more tweets since you started searching." 43 more tweets? Really? What was most shocking wasn't the sheer volume of people talking about the week-long event, but the actual people who were participating in the conversation. Journalists, fashion incubators, retail gurus and people who were just plain interested in the industry were weighing in on a topic that has notoriously shut its doors to anyone deemed an outsider. Why the transparency now? Social Success "People want to feel connected," says Kelly Cutrone, owner of People's Revolution and executive producer of reality TV series on Bravo Kell on Earth. Cutrone has orchestrated the campaigns of hundreds of clients, including Donna Karan and Lisa Marie, and has always incorporated a digital strategy when working with them. "It's one thing if you are a luxury brand and have been around for 60 years and can weather the retail storm we've had, but if you are a new brand that's just starting out — whether you are a writer or a retailer — innovating through social media is crucial. Those that are hidden and guarded will not progress." In the past six months, the amount of fashion insiders embracing social media has skyrocketed. On any given day (depending on who you are following) you can learn that Marc Jacobs president Robert Duffy is still pondering locations for their rapidly approaching fashion show. You might know that designer Rachel Roy had an interview with a media outlet, or that designer Tory Burch is hoping to see models with “some meat on their bones" in her show. By letting the public behind the fashion influencer curtain, stalwarts and luminaries have created and connected to an entirely new audience, and capitalized on the 400 million Facebook users and more than 22 million Twitter users. Social media, it seems, has become the hottest trend since skinny jeans and stiletto heels. "Ignoring the Internet [and social media] is madness," says designer Diane von Furstenberg who has been advocating for transparency in the fashion industry for years. "We decided to have a presence because it was a very organic way for us to communicate online. And yes, we think about [transparency] but don't worry too much. We try to keep the focus on the clothes that are in the store, or buy now and wear now, not what is on the runway. But people will always get access to that as well." With her following at over 22,000, von Furstenberg is one of the most beloved and popular designers on Twitter. And while that number doesn't seem high compared to the 4.5 million followers Ashton Kutcher has, von Furstenberg's followers are loyal key influencers whose voices hold a certain amount of authority not only in the fashion industry but also in high-tech social circles.  The viral marketing capabilities of re-tweeting by this targeted group is something an advertising budget cannot buy. Within the last year of having a major online and social media presence, von Furstenberg's online traffic has increased by 13% and sales "have been great" according to a source in the corporate offices of DvF. "Brands are learning how to humanize without killing their mystique," says Shiv Singh, VP and global social media lead at Razorfish and author of Social Media Marketing for Dummies. “You look at brands like Chanel, who have pushed designer Karl Largerfeld into the social media sphere to further connect with their customers, or Victoria's Secret, who has 2.63 million fans on Facebook and 1.7 million for Pink — you are able to see how these brands are able to connect with their customers and monetize on it through awareness, loyalty and engagement." Likewise, Burberry who launched the "Art of the Trench" campaign last summer shot by photographer Scott Schuman saw incredible success by having fans comment on the pictures. Schuman, who has launched himself into the fashion stratosphere with his photography blog “The Sartorialist" says he has never updated his Twitter account (he claims it is someone he doesn't know who is posting) but has upwards of 34,000 followers. "The Burberry campaign was the first of its kind to not use a large budget for hair, makeup and models. They got me, and my style of taking photos, and it allowed us to communicate with the customer on a whole new and very real level." Not Everyone is Ready to Take the PlungeWesley R. Card, CEO of Jones Apparel Group explained at the WWD CEO Summit last November that transparency and lack of control over what is being said online is a worrisome issue. "As a chief executive, you want to think that you have complete control over what is being said about you or your company, and you want to make sure what you are saying isn't getting misconstrued. Even though I know we need to embrace it as a corporation, I am a little apprehensive." Even with those who are tentative or might not understand social media completely, the Fashion Week gods, i.e. the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) and IMG (who produce the shows at the tents in Bryant Park), have also decided to let bloggers populate the front rows, and have established WiFi areas instead of putting the kibosh on their coverage. The Blogosphere is Getting Access Nichelle Pace, blogger and owner of the site STYLEMOM, who has been covering the runway shows for three seasons, noticed a significant change in tone of responses when requesting coverage of the shows this season. "The ice has definitely thawed," she notes. "I have a lot more [invites] to shows this year and publicists are more willing to float me images post-show if by chance they are over capacity and I can't cover it." Another major change is that the dialog between designers, bloggers and social media gurus has opened up. Designers understand their customers are consuming media at mach-5 speeds. Likewise, magazines realize it's not about printing information three months after fashion weekends. "I think it’s going to be more and more important to get stuff up on the web — images, reviews, interviews, etc. — as quickly as humanly possible," says Lauren Sherman co-editor of Fashionista.com. “People read what they see first. I think magazines in particular need to figure out a way to cover the shows more uniquely in print because by the time the September issue comes out, no one cares anymore." Joe Zee, creative director at ELLE Magazine says that just like in most give-and-take relationships, it’s a compromise. "I've always been about what the 'next big thing' is. Please, I was the one that would help my grandmother put the VCR together when I was little and got a Tivo 15 years ago. People fear what they don't understand, but trust me, magazines, designers and retailers are getting to understand what social media is faster than they can say 'that's fabulous.'" More social media resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto Tags: blogosphere, BLOGS, entertainment, facebook, fashion, fashion week, social media, style, twitter, Victoria's Secret
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| HOW TO: Make a Google Buzz Desktop App Posted: 13 Feb 2010 09:37 AM PST 
Whether you’re using it on your phone or your desktop, Google Buzz is quickly becoming an interesting and popular way to share content with your Gmail friends. However, because it’s tied to Gmail, Google Buzz is also tied to your web browser. That can be fine for lots of instances, but what if you what if your primary Gmail account and the account you use Buzz with aren’t the same? What if you want to have Buzz act like more of a regular application than a browser tab? While we’re sure that plenty of Buzz-specific application clients are in the works, we’re going to show you how you can create your own Buzz Application for Windows, Mac or Linux. As a side benefit, you can utilize this technique with practically any web application out there! The Rundown on SSBs (Site-Specific Browsers)To create our stand-alone copy of Gmail (and by extension, Google Buzz), we’re going to create what is known as a site-specific browser (SSB). An SSB is a web browser instance that is created specifically for a certain website or web application. It has its own desktop shortcut and can appear as its own application. Most SSBs will eschew more advanced browser features and add-ons (meaning you see the web page and not the toolbar and navigation components), keeping the focus just on a singular app or app suite. So why would anyone want something like this? Well, it makes it easy to keep a certain website or web app separate and distinguishable from other tabs. It also keeps the focus on just that app. Plus, if your main browser crashes or you accidentally close it, your SSB isn’t affected.  It can also be good for users that want to login to multiple accounts of the same service, depending on what type of SSB tool you use. Plus, for the advanced user, some SSBs support different scripting extensions that can add in extra or custom functionality specifically to that SSB — functions that might not be available for the standard browser. Choosing the Right ToolThere are a number of different programs for creating your own SSB. Bubbles for Windows was one of the first general purpose SSB tools. It uses Internet Explorer’s rendering engine, meaning that it will display sites the same same way as Internet Explorer does on your PC. With Bubbles you can see your app from the system tray and get desktop notifications and drag and drop local files to your app. Bubbles shares cookies with Internet Explorer, meaning that logging into two Gmail accounts at once is not the easiest thing to do. However, if that’s not what you need and you just want a good separate Gmail and Google Buzz client for Windows, you can download the free Bubbles for Gmail SSB. Fluid for Mac is easy to use and customize, plus you can add in scripts and other additions if you want to get really geeky. It uses Safari’s WebKit rendering engine — so it’s fast — and you can take advantage of any of the Safari add-ons (like Agile Web Solutions’ 1Password), which makes it really slick. However, like Bubbles, Fluid shares cookies with Safari for Mac. Again, this means that logging into multiple accounts of the same service is pretty much out of the question. We expect this to be fixed in the future, but as for right now, it’s not really an option. For developers that want to have customize an SSB and also distribute it to other users, check out the open source Fluidium project. Fluidium is in many ways the successor to Fluid.  Google Chrome (Windows and Linux Only) Google’s Chrome browser has the ability to create an SSB from any browser tab. Google calls this Application Shortcuts. To create an Application Shortcut, navigate to the page you want to access and then click on the Control this Page button (the icon that looks like a document) and select “Create Application Shortcut.” Then designate where you want a shortcut to be created. Now, when you launch that shortcut, you’ll be taken to that page. Like other SSBs, the address bar and navigation bar won’t be visible. Sadly, like Bubbles and Fluid for Mac, Google Chrome’s SSB tool still shares cookies with the Google Chrome browser. Again, if you want to login to the same service under multiple accounts, this isn’t the option for you. But it is a darn easy way to create an SSB. Mozilla Prism is a standalone app or a Firefox extension that creates site-specific browsers that are rendered using Firefox’s Gecko engine. If you use the standalone app, you just need to enter in an address, an application name, and designate where you want the app to be located. If you use the Firefox Extension, you can turn any website into an SSB just by clicking Tools, “Convert to Website Application.” Unlike Fluid, Chrome and Bubbles, Prism stores cookies for Prism apps separately from Firefox. This is fantastic for anyone with multiple accounts with the same service (like Gmail) who don’t like to shuffle between logins day in and day out. For us, this is a killer feature — because one of the downsides of Google Buzz is that it is explicitly linked with a particular Gmail account. For teams or small businesses that want to use Buzz from a main account (like we do at Mashable), this is a way for multiple users to share an account, without having to give-up access to their personal mail or personal Buzz messages. Creating a Google Buzz App in PrismThe process is pretty simple, but we’ll walk you through it step-by-step. Step 1: Download Prism either as an extension or stand-alone app. Both options are virtually the same, so which one you use really just depends on your preference. Step 2: Either double-click on the Prism application or go to Tools -> Convert Website to Application in Firefox.  In the address bar, you want to fill-in: https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#buzz Choose whether you want the app to be on your Desktop or in your Applications folder (or in the Start Menu for Windows) or both. You can choose to have a navigation window or not (we’d rather not have it), if you want status updates and notifications, and if you want to enable navigation keys.  By default, Prism will select the website’s favicon, in this case, a small Google logo, but we’ll want to replace that with something that looks better at a larger size. Zandog and deviantART created a great PSD of the Google Buzz logo. I made just a couple of tiny modifications and resized it to 512×512 and saved it as a transparent PNG file. You can download it and use it for you own Buzz icon if you want something that will look nice in your task bar or Mac dock. Here’s the image:  Right click on this image and select Save As. Then, in the icon dropdown box, select “Choose Image” and find the PNG file you’ve saved to your hard drive. This will be your Buzz icon.  Click OK. Step 3: Double-click on your Buzz icon to launch you new Buzz app. That’s it! Now you can use Buzz in a stand-alone browser window without distractions and you can remain logged into a different Gmail account in Firefox, Chrome or Safari.  Make Other Sites into SSBsYou can use Prism (or Fluid, or Bubbles or Chrome) to create single-site browsers for other websites. Just follow the steps outlined above, replacing the Gmail URL with the site of your choice. Keep in mind that if you are dealing with a site that uses cookies for login info and you have or want to simultaneously access multiple accounts of the same service, Prism is the best option to use. Otherwise, it all comes down to a matter of preference! Do you ever create site-specific browsers? What features would you like to see in a full-blown Buzz client? let us know! Reviews: 1Password, Chrome, Firefox, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Linux, Mashable, Safari, Windows, fluid Tags: applications, Bubbles, buzz, chrome, fluid, Google, google buzz, google chrome, prizm, trending
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One of our favorite little Mac utilities, the iTunes controller 
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Google co-founder Sergey Brin 
Google posted a Vancouver Winter Olympics-themed search page logo featuring a luge athlete this morning just one day after 21-year old 
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Hitha Prabhakar is a retail industry expert and principal of The Style File Group, a retail consulting firm based in New York City. She has also written about fashion for Forbes.com, Time magazine, People magazine, People.com, ELLE India, Metro Newspapers, and is a contributor on CNBC. Follow her on Twitter at 
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