Hands-on With iOS 4.3
With iOS 4.3 set to arrive by the end of the week (perhaps in the next few hours), we know that many of you are going to be turning to iTunes to update your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices.Mashable has already covered the big new features in iOS 4.3, namely the introduction of the mobile hotspot for carriers other than Verizon and iTunes Home Sharing. Cosmetically, little has changed from i
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
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
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
10 Ways to Turn Your Local Business Into a Global Success
Jani Penttinen is a founder and CEO of PremiumFanPage, a service that helps brands connect with their fans in any language, and Xiha, a multilingual social network with users in more than 200 countries speaking 140 languages. He blogs at janipenttinen.com.Today’s Internet represents a momentous age in the history of global commerce. Never before have so many people met in one, international mar
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
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 Oscars and the Death of the Water Cooler
If advertisers have their way, a lot of the Oscar buzz this year will have nothing to do with the best picture nominees.As with the Super Bowl, advertisers during the second-biggest advertising night of the year (the Academy Awards are known in the industry as the “Super Bowl for Women,”) are trying to inject themselves into social media conversations happening during the event.But while the Su
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
The Future of Your Wireless Home Network
David Henry is a senior director of product marketing for NETGEAR where he works on high performance, dependable and easy home networking, storage and digital media products to connect people with the Internet and their content and devices. You can follow NETGEAR on Twitter @NETGEAR.The future of home networking will see multiple devices connected to the Internet and to each other. At the 2011
Music Discovery App Mocks Your Musical Tastes
Yeah, you could just ask a friend to suggest some tunes for you — or you could download Pocket Hipster, the iPhone app that leers at your iTunes library, and then suggests replacements (the noun, not the band).Putting aside for a moment the name of the app (I feel like “Pocket Music Snob” would be a lot less polarizing), Pocket Hipster [iTunes link] is a fun little diversion from a cadre of wel
HANDS ON: Amazon’s Prime Instant Video
On Tuesday, Amazon rebranded its Video On Demand as Amazon Instant Video, and — perhaps in a bid to take on Netflix — will be offering Amazon Prime members unlimited access to thousands of its titles.Amazon Prime is a membership program that provides households with unlimited two-day shipping and other fast shipping options for $79 per year. The new Prime Instant Video service is a free additio
Amazon launches Prime Instant Video, unlimited streaming for Prime subscribers
We heard it was coming and now here it is. Amazon has flipped the switch on its "free" video streaming for Prime members, the service we've been hearing about for the past month or so. If you've already been taking advantage of subscription-based two-day shipping so that your impulse buys get to your door a little quicker you can now enjoy streaming of 5,000 pieces of "prime eligible" content, in
Go Backstage at the Oscars With Your iPad
The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be held in just over a week and in preparation for the big night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC have created an Oscar companion app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.The Oscar Backstage Pass [iTunes link] app is designed to give Oscar lovers an inside look before, during and after the big show. The $0.99 app is part of the Academy’
How Social Media Helped Toy Story 3 Win at the Box Office
The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, an award-winning agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download Oneupweb’s free whitepaper, “The Bloody Truth about Social Media.”Toy Story 3 was one of the biggest films of 2010. As Pixar’s 11th full-length film, the third and final chapter in the world of Buzz L
Inception & The Dark Knight Get iPad Special Editions
Get ready, Christopher Nolan fans. Special versions of the films Inception and The Dark Knight are now available for iOS.These two films are the first to get the “App Edition” treatment from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. Not only do the apps include full access — streaming and via download — to the feature film, they also include access to special features, photos, behind-the-scenes trivia
Warner Bros Releases The Dark Knight and Inception As iPhone Apps
Interestingly, Warner Bros has released The Dark Knight and Inception as downloadable apps on the iPhone. It starts as a free app with a 5-minute preview and extra features and becomes a full movie with an in-app purchase ($10, $12 respectively, you can choose whether to download or stream). More »
5 of the Best Streaming Media Services Compared
The Innovative Entertainment Series is supported by Dolby. “Like” Dolby for a chance to have Adam West read your Facebook status update, live, on camera, February 18th.A few years ago, most people probably got the majority of their media content from either a cable box, an optical disc or from an Internet download. Today, with the advent of YouTube, ubiquitous connectivity and better access to
2 Guys, 1 Passion Project & a Gold Mine of Movie Data
This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.This isn’t your average startup story, nor are Nathan Chase and Jeremy Thompson your average founders. No, this is the story of movie ranking
LIVE: Never Say Never Director Jon Chu Talks 3D Movies & Bieber-mania
Never Say Never, AKA the Justin Bieber movie, hits theaters on February 11. Today, February 10, starting at 4:00 p.m. ET, Mashable will be chatting with the film’s director, Jon Chu (@jonmchu) about what it’s like to make a 3D concert film, Bieber-mania and how social media has influenced the marketing efforts for the project.Concert films have been a cinematic staple since the early 1960s. Fro
5 Tech Advances That Are Transforming Digital Entertainment
The Innovative Entertainment Series is supported by Dolby. Superhero. Mayor. Status update reader. Adam West could read your Facebook status, live.The idea of “sitting around the campfire” persists into the modern age. Now, however, there is much less “campfire.” The idea has come to mean a group of people sitting around a communal piece of entertainment.Fire used to be a really big deal, but n
HP Unveils the Palm Pre 3, TouchPad Tablet and More
HP is about to launch a wave of new webOS devices, including the Palm Pre 3 and its answer to the Apple iPad.We’re here live at HP’s webOS event in San Francisco, where the company is expected to unveil a series of new phones and a tablet called the TouchPad. HP has decked out the Herbst Pavilion in San Francisco for the main event, and the room is filled with journalists, analysts, partners,
How Does 3D Technology Work?
The Innovative Entertainment Series is supported by Dolby. “Like” Dolby for a chance to have Adam West read your Facebook status update, live, on camera, February 18th.In 1838, Sir Charles Wheatstone first described the process of stereopsis: the process by which humans perceive three dimensions from two highly similar, overlaid images. Or, the process by which Avatar looks like a mind-blowingl
Mashable Weekend Recap: 22 Stories You May Have Missed
Super Bowl ads delighted us this weekend, with those brilliant mini-movies extending their reach via social media. But that wasn’t all.An exotic car and a smooth smartphone were vying for coolness honors, we found lots of places to find free music, and the Old Spice Guy showed up again, in a brand new and hilarious ad. We even did a live blog of the Super Bowl commercials during the entire game