80+ Can’t Miss Things To See & Do at SXSW 2011
Amy Webb is the CEO of Webbmedia Group, an award-winning digital strategy agency that advises Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, media organizations, foundations, governments, universities and other groups around the world. She is also the founder of Knowledgewebb.net, a membership website for personalized training in digital media. Twitter: @webbmedia. Plancast: @webbmedia.This week kicks
Smartphone Wars, iOS 4.3 & Facebook Movie Rentals: This Morning’s Top Stories
Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.Android Overtakes BlackBerry As Top U.S. Smartphone PlatformAndroid is the most popular smartphone platform among U.S. subscribers, according to new data from comScore.iOS 4.3 To Go Live Tod
Warner Bros. Starts Movie Rental Service on Facebook
Warner Bros. has started delivering movies through Facebook, enabling U.S. users to rent titles for $3.Now, besides “liking” and commenting on the Dark Knight Facebook Page, you can also watch the movie directly from Facebook (the option is available from the menu on the left). That movie is the only one currently available for rental from the Warner Bros. catalog, with more to come in the foll
This Year, Do Your Taxes On The iPad With TurboTax
Last night, after much procrastination, I started my taxes—on my couch with a movie playing on the TV, using only my iPad. I was testing out an early build of TurboTax, which is now available for the iPad (in addition to the online and desktop versions). I got through the bulk of my taxes by the time the movie was over. Taxes are never fun, even on the iPad. But the new TurboTax iPad app makes
Mark Zuckerberg’s Puppy Gets a Facebook Page
The millions of people who saw The Social Network might not believe it, but Mark Zuckerberg has a softer side, an aspect underscored by his latest project: a Facebook Page for his new puppy.Beast, a fluffy white Puli, got his own Facebook Page, which features pictures of the Facebook CEO and founder and his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, holding and playing with the pup. So far, Beast has gotten a
Moody’s Very Late, But Nevertheless Quite Appropriate Greek Downgrade Inches Us Closer To the Rate Volatility Storm
video For the past two years, and particularly over the last couple of months, I have been harping on the coming interest rate volatility storm. Things are now moving in lockstep, precisely as I have forecast. In the news this morning from the mainstream media… Moody’s Downgrades Greek Sovereign Debt by 3 Notches: Moody’s rating agency downgraded Greece’s sovereign debt on Monday from B1 to Ba1 an
Angry Birds Game Coming to Facebook
Rovio CEO Mikael Hed says the immensely popular Angry Birds game is coming to Facebook next month with “completely new aspects to it that just haven’t been experienced in any other platform.”According to All Facebook, Hed used the word “collaborative” to describe aspects of the game, adding that “the pigs will have a more prominent role.”Take a look at the Angry Birds page on Facebook, and you’
The Dream of Mobile Content Delivered at HQME
The fears that video will crush cell phone networks as people casually scan YouTube clips on the street or stream Netflix movies from their iPads is forcing mobile operators, entertainment companies and electronics companies to rethink their networks. But the entertainment industry, San Disk and mobile operators are also dreaming up a new standard that provides top-ranked content on the handset ev
Morgan Spurlock Sells Out At TED
Data-storage firm EMC got quite the bang for $7,100: The title sponsorship of Morgan Spurlock’s talk at TED today.Spurlock sought a sponsor for the speech a few weeks ago with an ad on eBay. As the filmmaker noted in today’s talk, the response from advertisers to that ad and subsequent attempts to get marketers to integrate their brands into his upcoming film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Great
What’s New in iOS 4.3
While much of the focus at Apple’s iPad 2 event might have centered around the sexy new hardware, Apple showcased some of the new features in the upcoming iOS 4.3 as well.Developers have had the opportunity to work with beta versions of iOS 4.3 for several months. The new OS release isn’t going to introduce as many features as the iOS 4.0 update or the unifying iOS 4.2 release, but the improvem
PepsiCo CEO, Filmmaker & Ford Executive at TED
PepsiCo has launched some innovative social media initiatives under CEO Indra Nooyi’s watch, including Pepsi Refresh, an ambitious program that sought to fund various philanthropic initiatives.Nooyi will speak today during a TED session that will also include filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who is promoting two movies this year — The Greatest Movie Ever Sold about branding and marketing, and a docum
LivingSocial Offers 2-for-1 Deal on Movie Tickets
LivingSocial, which garnered significant social media buzz with its two-for-one gift certificate offer with Amazon in January, is offering another, similar national deal today with Fandango.The group buying service is touting a two-for-one deal on movie tickets through Fandango — $9 buys two tickets. The deal is only good today and only for one time per customer. LivingSocial customers can also
RedRover App Builds Geo-Social Network for Parents
Kathryn Tucker recalls the time she missed her daughter’s friend’s birthday party because she lost track of the information. It’s a thought the mother of two returned to when she developed RedRover, a social location-based network for parents, that helps them connect, plan play dates and discover new kid-friendly locations. The service, which launched this week as an iOS app, speaks to the power o
YouTube Video of the Day: The King’s Speech Gets Remixed
Best Picture loser The Social Network may have spawned its share of parodies, but has it, pray tell, inspired a truly epic remix? That’s an area (aside from the obvious) where Oscar winner The King’s Speech has the “Facebook Movie” beat.Bonus: This NSFW video (language) was made by Eclectic Method, who VJ’d and DJ’d the Mashable Awards Gala.More About: eclectic method, kings-speech, social network
Smashing Email Newsletter Turns One Year Old: Comment and Win!
As most of you may already know, every second Tuesday of a month we send out an email newsletter to our subscribers (over 50,000 at the moment). Every newsletter issue contains exclusive, short articles that present recent design techniques, freebies as well as useful resources and tools. We work hard to make every issue special and useful, interesting and entertaining, and therefore your feed
The Oscars & Social Media by the Numbers
The yearly Oscar telecast is no longer strictly a broadcast-only affair. The main show might still be relegated to television sets, but much of the real action took place online. Co-host James Franco wasn’t the only person tweeting during the ceremony — hundreds of thousands of others joined in, sharing their thoughts on who looked great (Christian Bale’s beard), who made waves (Melissa Leo in
Zynga’s FrontierVille To Hype Premiere of Johnny Depp’s New Film
Rango, the Johnny Depp-voiced chameleon whose self-titled movie is set to hit theaters this weekend, will have a cameo in Zynga’s FrontierVille to help promote the release.Starting today, FrontierVille players will be challenged to find Rango, ask their friends for 10 water buckets and view the trailer for the film. If they complete that mission, players get a Rango statue to add to their homes
The 4 Biggest Stories in Social Media, Business & Media This Morning
Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on four particular stories of interest today.Facebook Upgrades the “Like” ButtonFacebook has released an update that fundamentally changes the “Like” button’s functionality. Now clicking the button on a story page pulls up the full stor
The Social Network Wins 3, Loses 5 Oscars
It was a great night for The King’s Speech and Inception at the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday — and a somewhat more disappointing outcome for their main rival, David Fincher’s The Social Network.Fincher’s movie, a fictionalized account of the rise of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, still won three Oscars. Writer Aaron Sorkin, also known for West Wing and A Few Good Men, won Best Adapt
Oscars 2011 Vote: Best Motion Picture of the Year
We’ve taken two buzz readings, watched all 10 movies nominated for Best Picture, and wrung our hands over which movie will win the highest honor of the film industry.There’s only one thing left to do, short of waiting until the winner is announced: vote on it ourselves! So, Mashable readers, let’s hear it. What’s your pick for Best Picture? Best motion picture of the year:Market Research More
The Social Network’s Journey to the Oscars
video The 83rd Annual Academy Awards are rapidly drawing near, and the question on everyone’s (in the tech realm) mind is: Can a movie about Facebook win the Oscar?The Social Network, the Aaron Sorkin-penned, David Fincher-directed, black horse of 2010, has trod a long road to the Oscars. While it’s now nominated for numerous awards — including Best Film — the movie was once a veritable joke.We’ve be
Google’s Wizard Of Oz Search Algorithm And The Threat Of Facebook Search
Google search is powered by algorithms. Computers slice and dice data looking for signals that a web page is more or less interesting than other web pages for a given query. PageRank is a big part of this, where Google looks at inbound links to a site as well as the text relevant to that link. But Google also uses lots of other signals to determine the relevance of a web page. They have to, becaus
Thunderbolt: Everything You Need To Know
It might not have seemed like we needed another way to connect computer components, but when you take a look at Thunderbolt, which made its debut on MacBook Pros today, you’ll see it’s going to be a welcome addition.Formerly called Light Peak, this new way of connecting displays and peripherals is so much faster than its predecessors, it will probably take over as the preferred way to hook up d
Viral Stars Collaborate on Meme Movie “The Chronicles of Rick Roll”
Antoine “Bed Intruder” Dodson, Bear “Double Rainbow” Vazquez, Gary “Numa Numa” Brolsma, Ben “Leeroy Jenkins” Schulz and a handful of other viral video stars are making a movie.Never has any group of people so conspired to create Mashable bait. We’re practically speechless.This meme orgy is to be called The Chronicles of Rick Roll. Also appearing are Brian Collins, a.k.a. Mr. “Boom Goes The Dynamit
HOW TO: Change Your Business Model From Paid to Freemium
Umberto Milletti is the CEO of InsideView, the social CRM application which brings comprehensive sales intelligence gained from social media and traditional sources directly into any CRM platform for increased sales productivity and revenue.Much has been written on the pros and cons of the freemium model by Mark Cuban, Malcom Gladwell and Chris Anderson, among others. Rather than debate, this p
The Mark Zuckerberg Comic Book Has Arrived
The biographical comic portraying the life of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg hits shelves today.Canadian comic production company Bluewater Productions released the “giant-sized” 48-page issue, which freelance journalist Jerome Maida wrote Sal Field illustrated.“Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire on the planet and created something that has already had a profound impact on the wor
New Photo App Explores the World’s Disappearing Cultures
Volumes of professional photography have long been reserved for the coffee table, but Fotopedia, the maker of an online collaborative photo encyclopedia, is bringing this type of content to the iPad and iPhone. The company’s third photo app launches Tuesday and contains 1,300 photos of 40 unique cultures by professional photographer Jaime Ocampo-Rangel.The app is one part of Ocampo-Rangel’s 12-