19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- iPad 2 reportedly to have a smudge-free, reflection-proof screen [TNW Apple]
- Twitter, make your choice, acquire a media sharing service or launch your own [TNW Twitter]
- iOS apps may be selling your information, according to newly-filed lawsuit [TNW Apple]
- iPhone, Android, both or neither? Market domination is entirely subjective. [TNW Mobile]
- Microsoft’s biggest gambles, launches and successes in 2010 [TNW Microsoft]
- Samsung takes on the iPod Touch with its Android-based Galaxy Player [TNW Gadgets]
- How to Crowdsource a “Snowmageddon Cleanup”: Use free software from PICnet and Non-Profit Soapbox [TNW Apps]
- An updated Appsfire for Android includes video previews before purchase [TNW Apps]
- Video: Snow lightning in New York City! [TNW Shareables]
- Christmas was Angry Birds’ biggest day ever with over 1 million downloads [TNW Apps]
- Video: Last Night’s East Coast Blizzard, A Timelapse [TNW Shareables]
- In 2010 Chrome’s rise was Firefox’s loss [TNW Apps]
- Amazon patents system for returning unwanted gifts, before you actually receive them [TNW Lifehacks]
- 8 Social Media Apps to Watch in 2011 [TNW Social Media]
- Top Tips for New Quora Users [TNW Apps]
- Apple to detail its first fiscal quarter earnings on January 18 [TNW Apple]
- Students at Harvard Business School help step up its start-up game with a $50K MVP Fund [TNW United States]
- Best of 2010: Travel Apps for the iPhone [TNW Apps]
- Gift A Stranger gives unwanted presents a new life in a far off land [TNW Apps]
- A mom from Minnesota uses Facebook to find her daughter a kidney [TNW Facebook]
| iPad 2 reportedly to have a smudge-free, reflection-proof screen [TNW Apple] Posted: 28 Dec 2010 03:50 AM PST
According to the newspaper’s sources, Apple is “Working on strengthening the iPad 2′s anti-smudge and anti-reflective treatments in order to compete against Kindle and attract more consumers”. The existing iPad suffers badly from grease marks once it’s been used for a while. Although they don’t affect the usage of the device, they look damn ugly, taking the “sexy gadget” image of the device down a notch or two. Meanwhile, you can forget it if you want to use a current iPad in direct sunlight – improved anti-glare coating would be highly welcome and seems lie an obvious addition to the device. Digitimes’ report also states that in addition to the WiFi only and UTMS 3G versions that we’re used to right now, a CDMA version is in the works. If true, this makes a Verizon iPad a virtual dead cert – something that will please the US market. At present the iPad is only available for Verizon as a Mi-fi-bundled WiFi device. If a native Verizon iPad does make an appearance, it could also hint at the long-rumoured Verizon iPhone making an appearance soon. Digitimes’ sources estimate that in 2011, iPad shipments will reach 40 million units and account for 65-75% of the global tablet PC market. With Android tablets still in their early days, this might well be an accurate guess. In a separate report, Digitimes recently claimed that the second iPad would sport video calling, lighter body, USB ports, new display technology and new 3-axis gyroscopes. All of these, except the USB ports which Apple is averse to in its mobile devices, seem like pretty logical additions to the tablet. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Twitter, make your choice, acquire a media sharing service or launch your own [TNW Twitter] Posted: 28 Dec 2010 02:16 AM PST
I went on to explain that links and thoughts were basically everything that people shared, which if you think about it, is true. “Whenever you find something worth sharing, copy the URL and paste it into the top field on twitter.com and that’s it!” I said. Her next question: “but how do I share a photo?” “Well you, um, you have a number of options. You could try Twitpic, Yfrog or..” I muttered unconfidently. Then it hit me, I mean why on earth is there still not a quick way to share photos on Twitter.com? Yes Twitter has mentioned it was considering the idea and yes there are other services that allow you to do it, but the moment you need to explain to someone that’s just trying to to get to grips with one site, that they have visit a completely separate site entirely to perform a basic function – you’ve lost them. Twitter was right to acquire Tweetie, simplicity is essential to bring the non-geeks, the non-technically minded, the “normals” on board. We’ve become spoilt, your average Joe has that is. Thanks to sites like You Tube, Facebook and Flickr, image and video sharing has become the norm. Media sharing is something users (those who don’t care about having their “own” content hosted on their “own” servers) expect of a modern web based service. As I’ve mentioned far too many times in the past, Twitter is still (in my opinion) primarily used by techies, marketers, entrepreneurs, writers and news fiends, all of whom use it it because it’s a ‘must use’ tool to sell or gather information and no matter how inconvenient…you just have to use it. For those who don’t ‘have’ to use it but are interested in learning what the fuss is about, the idea of having to go elsewhere to share a video or photo is laughable. So, how would Twitter go about it? Does it make sense to acquire an existing photo sharing service? I’d argue no, unless its Posterous (but that’s for another post). There’s not one USP that Twitpic, Yfrog or any other photo sharing service has to offer aside from possible a user’s previous photo uploads. And while Twitpic has tried, it will never be able to prevent its users from exporting their data when they choose to leave. No, inserting a simple image upload button alongside the “What’s happening” text field is the way to do it. Simple, clear, instinctive – it’s where a user would expect to find it. You then might consider it necessary to have an ‘uploads’ or ‘media’ section to everyones profile to browse through their uploads – again I’d argue, no. It’s important that Twitter remains faithful to its KISS values. The goal needs to be to allow users to share photos easily, nothing more. The moment Twitter begins adding features to organise media – we’ll see a loss in the significance of the twitter timeline(s) and a closer step to become a social network – something its founders insists that its not. Whether its acquiring an existing company – most likely as a talent acquisition – or simply building the feature itself – Twitter needs to do this soon. Agreed?Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| iOS apps may be selling your information, according to newly-filed lawsuit [TNW Apple] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 06:28 PM PST
According to Businessweek, a suit was filed in federal court in San Jose, California, seeking class-action status. That suit alleges that some iOS applications are able to identify and sell your information without your knowledge or consent. However, this suit goes further than the applications, to the point that Apple is being accused of making this all possible. How so? According to the suit, iOS devices are encoded with “identifying devices” which would allow an advertiser to track information that is specific to the device owner. That identifying device, the UDID, is claimed to be used by advertisers to disseminate information that an application has acquired. What is not immediately clear, however, is how the applications would come by the deeper data that is claimed to have been sold. Information such as age, gender, income, ethnicity and even sexual orientation is in question, and that information can only be gathered if it is entered via an application specifically. An Apple representative for Businessweek didn’t immediately return comment, but you can bet that we’ll be seeing more from Lalo v. Apple, 10-5878 in the very near future. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| iPhone, Android, both or neither? Market domination is entirely subjective. [TNW Mobile] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 04:40 PM PST
There has been a lot of talk lately about how Apple is going to have a hard time maintaining its position with the growth of Android. The talk from the Android camp is how much better the Android OS is compared to iOS. Then, bringing up the rear, you have the newly-formed Windows Phone 7 fans who think that everybody else is wrong entirely. So who’s right? Everyone and nobody, depending on how you look at things. You see, there are fundamental similarities between all of the true “smart” phones on the market. They do applications, they have an operating system that can support 3rd party function and they have keyboards. Beyond that, though, the differences are numerous. It’s because of these differences that there’s room for more than one “winner”, as it were.
Android runs on a variety of devices, from the cheap to the rather amazingly expensive. Each has their plusses and minuses, but you pay for what you get more often than not. Want a Nexus S? It’s going to run you some serious cash. The same goes for the HTC Evo 4G or any forthcoming LTE phone. They’re likely going to be expensive. Why? Because they’re serious hardware. Not as “pretty” as the iPhone, but still serious and seriously expensive. Windows Phone 7, as we know, has a variety of devices as well. Don’t be surprised, if it takes off, to see this same Android versus iPhone discussion come down to Android versus WP7 or iPhone vs WP7. Those arguments will happen. But there are fundamental differences in how each of the systems work.
The plain fact is that iOS remains widget-free likely because Apple has a longstanding history of success in simplicity. Apple as a whole tends toward things that just work, without extra bells and whistles. To that point, the MacBook Pro (another of Apples top of the line devices) is one of the simplest laptops on the market. Why? Because it works, so why change it?
So then, is there still room for Windows Phone 7? Absolutely. More people still use Hotmail than any other free email service. Windows Live, as a platform, is still wildly popular. We “tech elite” (read that as snobs) tend to write off products years before their death simply because bleeding edge is the way that we live. But even some elitists are loving what they’re seeing out of the Windows Phone OS, and their opinions will influence others to purchase the devices. So what will 2011 hold? John Gruber brings up the question of whether or not iOS can remain the leading platform for mobile without being the highest selling platform. He rephrases to ask whether iOS and Android can both thrive in 2011. My answer? Absolutely, and then some. You see, even though people do have emotional attachment to one device or another, there are those that simply buy devices that they think are good. If the iPhone hits Verizon, it will get a massive market boost. If it doesn’t, it will still hold a high sales figure simply for the fact that it’s a great device. The same can be said for Android, though. With lowered prices, it’s covering a wider spectrum than the iPhone, and sales are still sales no matter how you look at them. And this is precisely the reason why everything is subjective. It’s not a race of one beating another. Rather it’s a race of people abandoning dumb phones for smartphones, regardless of what brand or OS the devices run. Is Apple going to be successful with the iPhone 5? You bet. Will Android continue to grow? Yep. Will Windows Phones likely take a hold? Sure looks that way. So lay aside the bickering and just be OK with the fact that users will buy what users like, and as such there’s room at the top for more than one. It all depends on your definition of the top. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Microsoft’s biggest gambles, launches and successes in 2010 [TNW Microsoft] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 03:09 PM PST
It payed off. The company was rated the most innovative company in the world by The Street in 2010, and the MSFT stock price is at a 6 month high, boosted by hot new product releases and strong earnings. Microsoft is, as they say, back. We sat down and picked the biggest moves and gambles that Microsoft took this year in terms of dollars spent, the size of market attacked, or the boldness of action undertaken. You may disagree with our final selection, but you can't help but admit that the Microsoft of today is a radical change from the Microsoft of a year ago. HTML 5 over SliverlightMicrosoft kicked the hornet's nest this last PDC when it publicly snubbed Silverlight and cried out that HTML 5 was the company's cross platform solution of choice. Companies and developers that had spent endless time and money working with and learning Silverlight felt betrayed. Microsoft barely budged an inch, saying that for now, Silverlight is their mobile development solution. For everything else that company is looking to HTML 5, despite withering criticism. Why is this important? It means that eventually every internet based Microsoft product will work everywhere, no matter on what device it is being called to. In other words, Microsoft is changing its entire view of standards and formats, and is opting to work with the rest of the world. That is a sea change. Windows Phone 7Microsoft decided that it was not going to be able to sufficiently 'save' Windows Mobile 6.x from itself, so the company tore up the blueprints and started over. When the dust settled and Windows Phone 7 finally emerged, you could not help but be impressed. The OS is fresh, and exciting, the devices are capable, the advertising campaign is functional, and the handsets are selling. Microsoft literally muscled its way back into the mobile game by opening the corporate coffers and spending until they found a new strategy. Not many companies can match Microsoft's R&D budget, and Redmond is using cash as a weapon. You can bet that Google and Apple were happier when Microsoft was a mobile joke, not a viable player like it is today. Internet Explorer 9Internet Explorer 9 is another Microsoft product refresh that feels like the company fired the entire leadership team that had been in place before starting over from scratch. To put it bluntly, unlike Internet Explorer 8, IE9 has a future as a functional modern browser. Internet Explorer as a brand is in decline, attacked by foes both old (Firefox) and new (Chrome). Will Internet Explorer 9 single-handedly save the brand? No. But it is a massive start in that direction. We are even more excited about Internet Explorer 10, as if this is how good IE9 is, IE10 should be truly special. Microsoft reversed its course and decided to fight back against marketshare slippage, and it did it with force. We just can't wait until IE9 finally drops the beta tag and jumps into the market. KinectNot willing to let the Wii and the Playstation Move beat back the Xbox 360's momentum, Microsoft built the Kinect and dumped money into the coffers to advertise it. It worked. The little gadget was supposed to sell 5 million units in 2010 alone, despite a very late launch (in the calendar year, that is), but it should smash that official guess. Analysts had been expecting sales of 3 million, a figure that Microsoft blew through in around a month. The Kinect is a global success that gave new momentum to the Xbox 360 for the all-important Christmas shopping season. An innovative smash hit product? You would expect Apple, but Redmond can design too, it turns out. Oh, and speaking of Apple, the Kinect is the fastest selling gadget of all time. It destroyed the iPad's previous record. Facebook Integration With BingBing and Facebook are best friends, something that has cost Microsoft dearly, but has boosted the search engine significantly. Microsoft owns a whole 1.5% (or so) of the social giant, giving them first look on certain product tie-ins. Bing and Facebook have gone through two sets of major integration announcements, putting Microsoft's still somewhat small search brand in front of the mass market in the way that only Facebook could accomplish. It has been impressive to watch. So long as Micrsoft and Facebook play nicely with each other, expect for the two to keep on tangoing, and for Bing to keep on growing. If Google wants to keep its sky-high marketshare it is going to have to make a move in the social space quickly, before Bing cements itself too deeply inside of Zuckerberg's monster. 2010 was the year that Microsoft turned the Titanic around. 2011 should be the year that Microsoft hits the accelerator. Strap in, big things are coming.Image Credit: Robert Scoble [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Samsung takes on the iPod Touch with its Android-based Galaxy Player [TNW Gadgets] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:55 PM PST
Samsung is hoping that there are people in the same boat with Android. With its Galaxy Player, the mobile manufacturer is aiming toward those people who want to try out the Android OS without having to purchase a phone. Essentially a Galaxy S device, sans the phone, the Galaxy Player is slimmer, lighter and still packs Android 2.2 plus memory choices of 8, 16 or 32 GB. Want more storage? You’ll be able to add that via a MicroSD slot. The rest of the story? You’ll have a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1 Ghz processor, front and rear cameras and full access to the Android Market. Given our love of nearly every one of the Galaxy S phones, we’re excited to toy with the Galaxy Player. We haven’t seen pricing yet, but we’ll likely know after CES next week. In the mean time, give us your thoughts in the comments. Can an Android device really be the gateway drug to an Android phone?Source: VentureBeat [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2010 01:59 PM PST
The original site received about 33,000 visitors in the first 2 days. Today, Ozimek launched the site for NYC’s Snowmageddon Cleanup, as well as Boston’s a few hours ago, and both have already received good traction. The sites were made in just a few hours, last night from Lake Tahoe, California and Cannes, France. (While both Osimek and his colleague are out of the office, they still wanted to help). The count of unique visitors in the first few hours on New York’s site was 2,428. The crowdsourced site enables neighbors to help neighbors in New York to clean up after last night’s massive snow storm. Currently, the sites are displaying about 20 incidents reported in Boston and NYC, but it's still very early. Ozimek says the DC site, “really took off 24 hours after the launch, so to see so many people visiting already with practically no large NY press coverage yet is remarkable to us.” Posts on the NYC site include pictures of St. Mark’s, messages for urgently needed plows and shoveling help, SOS calls from vans that have been stuck for over 15 hours and less serious matters like snowball fights and sledding in Central Park. The software itself is simple, free and just getting started. That having been said, it would obviously be much more effective if it could pull in LBS technologies and apps like Foursquare, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Ozimek is the CEO of PICnet, a web development firm specializing in building open source software solutions for non-profits, government agencies, and NGOs. But they’ve chosen to build the sites using Ushahidi, an open source platform used to report incidents in crisis situations. The software is free, made in Kenya, customized in Lake Tahoe and has been successfully deployed in New York City, Boston and D.C.. (Photo by Nick McGlynn) [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| An updated Appsfire for Android includes video previews before purchase [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 01:03 PM PST
So it’s smart that Appsfire, the company behind the powerful app recommendation service of the same name, has just announced an updated version of their Android app that integrates previews of the official videos from the marketplace. We’ve reviewed Appsfire for Android in the past but we’ve never before seen video previews before purchase like the ones in the new Appsfire app. While Google has not yet pushed the new version, you can get your official app here. A few weeks ago the Android team announced support for official promotional videos for Android apps to help shoppers see an app in action before making a purchase. As soon as Android made this metadata available through its API, Appsfire pounced. Now Appsfire has videos previews in their getap.ps links and within their Android app.
The screenshot above is from the latest version of their app, released just minutes ago. See a full demo version of their DropBox preview here. Visit My Apps within Appsfire for Android to update. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Video: Snow lightning in New York City! [TNW Shareables] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:03 PM PST It’s sunny and snow in New York City today. City workers are blowing snow in the street and my friends are sledding in Central Park. Just as I posted a time lapse video of last night’s snow accumulation, I stumbled upon what I was hunting for all morning: a video of last night’s snow lightning. I hadn’t heard about this phenomenon until I saw it first hand last night, when it was both lightning and thundering in New York City’s first big blizzard of this winter.
Laughing Squid‘s Scott Beale shot the video below, which gives you a sense of how surreal last night’s storm was: [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Christmas was Angry Birds’ biggest day ever with over 1 million downloads [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 11:42 AM PST
The seasonal version of the vanilla Angry Birds, ‘Angry Birds Seasons,’ has since dropped to 8th place in the app store, but the original Angry Birds is still the number one paid application. We asked Rovio how many times their applications were downloaded on the 25th and they gave us something to chew on:
Biggest day ever? Over one million downloads? Check and check. It was almost a fair question a week ago if Angry Birds had begun to saturate the market, having been so popular for so long. It seems that there is in fact much more room for growth as the total pool of smartphones and the like expands, giving Angry Birds plenty of runway to continue selling. Of course, it did not hurt that Angry Birds had recently updated its application, and launched on the PC. Angry Birds will not be coming to Windows Phone 7 in the near future, but the game will be making its way to the PS3, DS, and PSP eventually. Angry Birds is the app to beat, who will step up to the plate?Top Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Video: Last Night’s East Coast Blizzard, A Timelapse [TNW Shareables] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 11:17 AM PST The following video was edited down from 20 hours of footage taken with a Canon DLSR on a tripod with a remote timer taking a photo once every five minutes. The East Coast storm that started midday on Sunday and ended early this morning on Monday was beyond aquatic, with billowing white sheets of frozen water and snow lightning- yes, snow lightning. We haven’t yet been able to dig up a great shot of that yet, but we did find this cool time lapse video so you can get an idea of what accumulation means today on the East Coast. The video was shot by Michael Black in Belmar, New Jersey, a seaside town about 80 minutes southeast of New York City.
December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| In 2010 Chrome’s rise was Firefox’s loss [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 10:34 AM PST
Now that is no longer the case. Safari and Opera have both undergone vast improvements, making them functional day-to-day browsers on the modern internet. Even Internet Explorer itself is undergoing a massive change from bad to good in a single release, something that will reshape the competitive browser marketplace. But none of that matters compared to Chrome’s market impact. Chrome is single-handedly eating Firefox’s marketshare and slowly bringing down the great House that was once Firefox. Let’s look at some very clear browser trends, as captured by Clicky Web Analytics [Disclosure: my friends own it, I used to work for them]:
Every time that graph grows it comes at the expense of someone else, this being a percentage chart not a total user graph, and so you can literally see in the lines the blood loss that Firefox and Internet Explorer are dealing with at the hands of Chrome. Chrome came out just over two years ago and did what was generally considered impossible at the time: take on and start to to take down the market’s two giants. There are only two questions that remain: how long until Chrome takes the number two spot in the market away from Firefox, and if Google will ever be subjected to antitrust allegations and lawsuits for their use of other products to push Chrome. While that only becomes a risk when Chrome is larger, it will eventually be a real potential challenge to the Chrome family. If you look at the second graph again, and find where 2010 begins, somewhere towards the end of Chrome 3, you will see a nearly linear line of growth through all of 2010, a growth of around 8 or 9 percent market share. Firefox lost around 4% last year. If Chrome gains another 8 points, and Firefox loses another 4, the two browsers will be single digits away from parity, something that will constitute a new world order in terms of the world of browsing. In two years, I wager that Chrome will be the number two browser in the world, period. Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 had best get to market, because Chrome is on the move.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Amazon patents system for returning unwanted gifts, before you actually receive them [TNW Lifehacks] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 10:29 AM PST
The system, not available for this Christmas period (where the Kindle became the company’s best-selling product ever), could possibly result in Amazon customers setting up an alternative gift list for specific people, effectively meaning the retailer could automatically vet gift choices based on a users requirements. The patent specifies that people will be able to ”convert all gifts from Aunt Mildred,” detailing how the process works: “For example, the user may specify such a rule because the user believes that this potential sender has different tastes than the user.” In other words, the consumer could keep an online list of lousy gift-givers whose choices would be vetted before anything ships. The patent, which is actually jointly attributed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, would allow for the automatic return of presents from friends or family who have sent bad gifts time after time. There is an element of sneakiness to the patent (if it wasn’t bad enough you had already declined Aunt Mildred’s gift) where the gift giver is never aware of the exchange. ”The user may also be provided with the option of sending a thank you note for the original gift,” according to the patent, “even though the original gift is converted.” Amazon’s thinking behind the filing is that ”the gift-giving experience through network shopping services would be improved for both senders and recipients if enhanced systems and methods were provided for converting gifts.” If you wanted to return an item sent to you this Christmas, for example, you would need to repackage the item, cover the cost of the shipping and then wait for a refund. The system, which has no confirmation of whether it will be implemented or not, turns the gift giving experience on its head, suddenly making it about the recipient and not the giver. Whether many people would use the system remains to be seen, the option may never see the light of day. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| 8 Social Media Apps to Watch in 2011 [TNW Social Media] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 10:17 AM PST
News aggregator – Ongo
Philo – Reinventing Television
Waze – social traffic
TV – clicker.com
Mobile – Sensobi Jot
Social Gaming – DeNA
Social CRM – JiveM
Music – Tubeify
In related news, see our list of the 10 Best Social Media Apps of 2010. What are your social media driven apps to watch for 2011?
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Top Tips for New Quora Users [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 09:49 AM PST
So, if you’re new to it, here are some tips to get the most out of this captivating website. Why Quora?As a hub for conversation and a place to get definitive answers from people in the know, Quora is unbeatable. Mainly used by Silicon Valley tech folk thus far, it looks likely that the knowledgebase of the site will increase significantly in 2011 as the diversity of users increases. Following people, topics and questions
Interested in Google’s recruitment policies, Ruby On Rails development or scuba diving? Just follow those topics and the latest questions and answers will appear directly in your newsfeed. It’s a fantastic way of discovering facts and discussions you never even thought of. The top box is your gateway to everythingNavigating Quora is simple – just start typing into the top search box and people, questions and topics related to your query will start to appear. It’s a beautifully simple design that does away with clicking through endless navigation menus to find what you want. Predictive suggestions pop up as you type and just like with Google’s instant search, you may well discover interesting questions or topics that didn’t occur to you.
It’s okay to lurk – your vote counts
Quora has a role for people who aren’t direct participants thanks to the fact that your news feed aggregates all your activity on the site. Simply by following topics and questions that interest you and by voting for answers that you find useful, you’re fulfilling a role as a curator for others. You really can be a valuable member of the Quora community without ever answering a question. Want to follow up on someone else’s answer? Leave a commentIf you feel that another user’s answer needs a cross-examination, or if you feel that you can add a little extra information to it, don’t leave another answer. Instead, you can comment on answers. The structure of Quora is such that answers are sometimes short essays in themselves, so commenting in response, rather than opening up your own answer, makes more sense. Taking the plunge: asking and answering questions
With Quora becoming increasingly popular, it’s possible that your contributions could get lost in the noise. When you ask a question, all your followers and the followers of any topics it’s linked to should see it in their news feed, but again – if they follow a lot of people it could get lost. A good way to open the question up to a wider audience is to share it via Twitter, which you have the option to automatically do when you post questions. You can of course manually share your question once it’s posted simply by sharing the URL on Facebook, your blog, Twitter or wherever else you like. Keep up-to-date on the goQuora’s mobile website didn’t make it on to our 10 Best Social Mobile Apps of 2010 for nothing – it really is a great way of keeping yourself interested and enlightened while you’re on the move, and a beautifully designed mobile site too. To access it, just visit Quora.com from a mobile browser. Do you have any more tips for new Quora users? Let us know by leaving a comment. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Apple to detail its first fiscal quarter earnings on January 18 [TNW Apple] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 09:39 AM PST
Apple made a slight adjustment to its investor relations page, announcing the call which will commence at 2pm PT with a link to the call being made at a late date. On the previous earnings call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs joined the call and discussed open versus closed nature of iOS and Android, which Jobs called a smokescreen. Jobs made certain to highlight that there are "100 different versions" of Android and went on to speak about the potential for four different Android Markets with Amazon is the latest to release its own. The call is likely to detail just how much Apple has made from the 15.5 million iPhones it has shipped this quarter, the millions of iPad tablets that were snapped up over the Christmas period and clarify just how successful its Macbook Air has been since its launch. Stay tuned, we expect some big numbers coming out of Apple in the new year.Macrumors, Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Posted: 27 Dec 2010 09:34 AM PST
And who’s driving the movement? The students are, reports BostInnovation writer Cheryl Morris. The school recently announced its $50,000 “Minimum Viable Product Fund” (MVP Fund), which was initiated by a very dear friend of mine, Dan Rumennik, HBS '12. The fund’s name plays on the lean startup methodology that emphasizes working on customer development in tandem with product development. As reported by Morris, the HBS Rock Center contributed the $50K and will be awarding winners. The fund aims to award ten teams with $5,000 each, but teams may request up to $10,000 in funding.
The deadline for Harvard students to apply for the fund is January 28th, 2010. Requirements and application information can be found here. Funded teams will be asked to check-in monthly with a mentor from the MVP program; attend a monthly gathering of MVP teams; and present lessons learned from the MVP program. The 2011 Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab include a list of investors like Jeff Bussgang and Gwill York and Eric Ries, who is the face and creator of the MVP methodology. HBS’s Rock Center has also organized a Silicon Valley Immersion Program in January, for students interested in working at a start-up, working in venture capital, or starting their own business. HBS also offers an entrepreneurial Immersion Program to Israel as well as several others in locations ranging from New Orleans to India. For more insider information, check out the Harvard Start-Up Tribe on Twitter. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Best of 2010: Travel Apps for the iPhone [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 08:41 AM PST
SkypeWhile Skype didn’t physically help me escape the earthquake, it was the second app I opened (after feverishly checking Twitter), to let my folks know that I was alive. AT&T international roaming bills will hit you hard. Find a WiFi spot and call your loved ones or local friends over a Skype connection. The Skype iPhone app allows you to call people internationally, at very little cost, and lets you pull in contacts from your iPhone address book. At The Next Web, our editors are spread all over the globe and we rely on Skype to keep us connected. While it went down last week, we expect big things from Skype in 2011. (Like video on mobile!) Download it here. (Free) TripItFlying? TripIt is a priceless (free) app for busy travelers. The app automatically syncs your e-mailed itineraries with your TripIt organizer and puts all your travel plans right on your iPhone so no matter where your travel was booked. If you haven't already synced your Google and TripIt accounts, simply forward travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com to build a trip itinerary. The app also includes a social feature, which lets you know when and where you're friends are traveling and if your trips overlap. The app texts you gate information and let’s you know the second your flight is delayed (often before the airline even announces it). It's hands down the most recommended app for frequent jet-setters, but the ads can get a little annoying. Download the app here. (Free) AccuweatherConsidering the iPhone’s weather predictions may as well be made up of emoticons, you’ll need to download a decent weather app to plan ahead while traveling. Accuweather and Weather.com are the two most popular weather apps, but after years of personal use Accuweather is slightly more accurate. Plus the app just got a sweet aesthetic update on December 18th. The current app includes 15-day local forecasts, 15 hours of hourly forecasts, forecast videos and can store up to 15 locations. What the app says: For Brooklyn today: Blizzard! Download it here. (Free) WazeWaze launched in September 2009 as a social driving and navigation app that connects drivers by crowdsourcing nearly real-time road information like traffic, construction hazards and police information from other “Wazers” and Twitter. The updated app includes intelligent voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation, Facebook and Foursquare integration and a contribution scoreboard to increase user participation. While using your phone’s GPS can dramatically decrease battery life, the app automatically turns off after 10 minutes of idle time. Download the app here. (Free) TrapsterWhile we do not condone breaking the law at The Next Web, we do know what it’s like to feel the need for speed. The highly rated app alerts you as you approach speed traps, red lights, speed cameras, police check points, accidents and other roadway hazards. It operates like a social network, similar to Waze, reporting information from over 8 million users. Trapster is the ultimate road demon’s app. I foresee a Wave-Trapster integration in the future, just saying. Download it here. (Free) GoogleMapsMany iPhone users don’t think of GoogleMaps as an app, but it is! Driving? Walking? Call me a purist but GoogleMaps has never let me down. This is a great app if you're going anywhere or lost in a new city. The app gives you step-by-step driving directions; lets you plan a trip with multiple stops; check live traffic conditions (in select cities) and drag 'n drop points to customize your route. You can easily pull in saved addresses from contacts too incase you haven't memorized M&D’s address. Download the app here. (Free)
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| Gift A Stranger gives unwanted presents a new life in a far off land [TNW Apps] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 07:46 AM PST
Created by Belgian communications agency Happiness Brussels, the site allows you to send a gift to someone you’ve never met. Simply click ‘Send A Gift’, enter your name, your home city and details of what you’re going to send and the site will generate a random address of a person somewhere in the world for you to send your gift to. The site lets you browse other gifts that have been pledged via a map. So, you can see that a cake has been promised to be sent from Spain to South Africa, a novelty mug sent from the USA to China and an Indiana Jones toy sent from Belgium to New Zealand. Tom Galle of Happiness Brussels explains to us, “We wanted to do something ‘positive’ and ‘happy’ for Christmas and New Year. We came up with the idea to send gifts to random people in the world, and we decided to make it a website where anyone could send gifts to random people. We like the idea of not knowing where your gift will end up, and making complete strangers happy.” Galle says that the addresses are chosen using Google’s reverse geocoding, which will keep going until it finds a place with a full address. This means that occasionally the address generation stage can be a little slow. So, if you fancy a spot of post-Christmas generosity, Gift A Stranger is there for you… as long as you don’t mind paying those potentially costly long-distance postage fees. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| A mom from Minnesota uses Facebook to find her daughter a kidney [TNW Facebook] Posted: 27 Dec 2010 07:34 AM PST
Warren first posted a message on Facebook asking if anyone could donate a kidney to her daughter and then asked all her friends to repost the message. “I was posting on Facebook all day,” Warren said. “I was posting the message to help my daughter and to please repost.” A stranger by six degrees named Cathy Olsen saw the message on a friend’s wall and volunteered. Olsen, a mother of 3 had never had surgery before, but she felt obliged to help. Fortunately, Olsen was detirmined a match for Loyd.
Olsen donated her kidney at the University of Minnesota on November 17th, 2010. "This is the best gift anyone can give," Warren told Kare11. "It's priceless. I can never tell Cathy thank you enough." Patients in need of organ donations are often put on wait lists for years as low-budget and often poorly run organizations mill through paperwork and account files. Vivica’s success story would not have been possible without the ease of outreach provided by social networks like Facbeook. ”I hope she’s having the best Christmas ever, it sounds like she is,” Olsen said. See our recent post on how social media is reinventing social activism. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
Not two weeks ago I introduced Twitter to a friend of mine who’s setting up her own business and had heard it was a solid way of spreading the word. I took her through the basics; explained the value of getting involved in the community and building a following, and also emphasised the importance of sharing quality relevant content.
People like to learn through video. That’s why 
It's that time of year! I'm going to place my bets on the ones to watch in the social media world in 2011. There are some key trends emerging online for 2011 – social news, social commerce, social TV. I wanted to take a look at who is in a good position to emerge as a key player not just for consumers but for businesses as well. And as well as looking at pure startups I wanted to look at those that may have been going for longer but who could be about to come into their own.
When major players in the publishing industry team up, you know it's going to be interesting. Ongo is a yet to launch social news service that has been funded by Gannett, Washington Post Co & the 
There's no doubt that social TV is going to be huge. 
Waze has been going since September 2009, but I think they haven't quite hit the potential that they could, due to the fact that in order for it to succeed it really has to hit the mainstream, and not just the tech elite. The app that just made our list of 
Clicker may well be one of my favourite sites. It’s already fairly popular and I think it will continue to grow in 2011. It's not a new site, but a recent round of funding combined with the new growth in social TV means we could see a lot more from them in 2011. It offers a completely personalised TV viewing experience – showing you what shows your friends have Liked and what's recommended for you, through partnering with Facebook. Each individual programme page gives you synopses, links to watch for free or paid, a friend feed to show which of your friends also like it and plenty of other features such as a discussion board. Ultimately your decision to watch something is based on an ad or friends' recommendation. And since I do a lot of my viewing online, this is the perfect website for a social TV experience. It's also well positioned to benefit from Google TV.
It's not often that you hear about a new app and instantly wonder how you will survive without it. Sensobi Jot is one of those. It bridges the gap between our offline and online communications and could soon become an essential for professionals. Sensobi Jot is currently in beta and it's essentially an app that allows you to easily take notes after a phonecall. When you make or receive a call, you get an email from Sensobi, which you reply to with the call notes. It may sound simple but it's absolute genius. I am one of the least organised people that I know and this could be a huge lifesaver for me. It's much more than just writing a note about a call, it is one of the first steps needed in organising contacts between email and phone.
Looking outside of social applications, there are going to be some new names in social gaming next year, which is currently being firmly owned by Zynga. 
In the b2b space, social CRM is going from strength to strength. And while only a few companies are seriously investing in this now, that could all change in 2011 as companies are forced to invest time and money in this, to ensure a smooth customer journey online. Jive is currently making waves here. They offer social business software across a wide range of products but what's of real interest is their social customer support software. This enables customers to help serve each other. This happens naturally across many communities but Jive's software provides a cost-effective solution for this. It bridges employees, customers and customer service reps together. Outside of Jive, I think we're going to see a lot of social CRM tools emerge in 2011. Just as social media monitoring has exploded with hundreds of companies offering free and paid solutions, social CRM will go the same way.
Spotify has gone a long way into making music more social, through sharing playlists but new music service Tubeify has gone one better than that. Tubeify was started by a frustrated student (hello new Facebok!) who wasn't satisfied with the way that you could discover music on Youtube. Tubeify is powered by Last.FM's search API and Youtube and is currently a web-only service. Most music videos are watched on Youtube but the experience is certainly not easy. Tubeify has addressed that with a really nice and clean website that also allows you to search while a video is playing. Perhaps one of the nicest features about this site. It also allows you to create custom playlists that can be accessed anywhere, and are easily shared through Facebook, Twitter and email. It also has some nice additional features such as accessing Billboard's charts. Warning though, it is ridiculously addictive.
Although 2010 is coming to a close, December falls within Apple’s first fiscal quarter, the quarter that the company has announced will be met with a conference call on January 18 to discuss its financial results during that period.
Is 
Whether or not they came out in 2010, these apps rocked for travelers this year. I spent most of my summer studying the intersection of tech and travel, as well as traveling with my iPhone throughout most of 2010 and I couldn’t have gotten by without these great apps- whether for keeping up with the weather, friends, or knowing the best spots to eat. (
AirBnB
While there are hundreds of “Around Me” and “Where” types of apps out there that will give you a slew of wonderful, local information, I always check Foursquare first because I trust its user base (now at 5 million) and second because it’s an app I want to contribute to. I single handedly blew up Foursquare in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a city that boasts a stable WiFi connection in almost every sandwich shop and cafe in touristy areas. Lost in Copenhagen recently? A few savvy New Yorker’s tips led me to an underground bar that served hot, organic fare and local microbrews. Couldn’t decide on sushi in Santa Monica? Only one sushi restaurant had over 100 check-ins. Foursquare is a curated, insider’s information app FTW. We were the first to cover its 
While less about gustatory connoisseurship and more about instant gratification, Urbanspoon’s app lets you find great eats in your local area with elegant ease. In fact, Urbanspoon is great whether or not you’re traveling. The app looks like a slot machine. Choose an area (such as the town you’re in), choose a type of food (Italian, Greek, Japanese, etc) and a price range ($ – $$$$) and “Shake” (literally shake your iPhone). Urbanspoon will recommend a restaurant based on your criteria and location. All restaurants are rated by Urbanspoon users. (Covers all of the United States and Canada, and large metro areas in the UK and Australia.) Download it 
If you prefer backpacking to jetsetting, the Pocket First Aid & CPR from the American Heart Association may just save your life. In fact, it did help save a life in Haiti. Remember Dan Woolley, who survived 65 hours under rubble? He used this application. Check out the story 
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