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Saturday 30 April 2011

5 iPhone Apps lets you do move with Evernote

When you test as much software as I do on a fairly regular basis, you tend to notice which apps you rely on and which ones fall off your radar after a while. Evernote, which is a handy note-taking and web clipping utility, isn’t necessarily one of those apps that I’ve been using regularly, but it is one that I keep coming back to again and again, and I’m always looking for ways to incorporate it into my routine.
Did you ever notice how the most popular apps & platforms have lots of additional add-ons and extensions that were created for them? Evernote is no different. In this article, I’ll show you a few of the simple applications that will help you do even more with Evernote.


1. Read It Later

do more with evernote
While it’s easy to copy text from a website to read later in Evernote, Read It Later makes this process even easier.
Read It Later gives you an easy way to copy text from a website to read later in Evernote. The service’s bookmarklet makes reproducing the contents of a webpage simple with just the click of a button, and the iOS app comes with Evernote integration built-in. What’s good about that is it allows you to take your archive of pages on the go.
I also recommend you check out Instapaper, another great app that functions a lot like Read It Later.


2. FastFinga


Livescribe smartpens are great because they keep a digital record of the things that you write and draw with them, but if you don’t have one, FastFinga could function as a suitable replacement. This iOS app lets you write your messages by hand on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
You can link up your Evernote account and store the messages you’ve written there. The service’s handwriting recognition will transform what you’ve written into searchable text, which is really cool if you ask me.


3. Twipple

evernote apps
Twipple isn’t the most well-known or widely used Twitter client for iOS devices that’s out there, but it integrates with Evernote really well. With Twipple, your tweets can be saved to notebooks and tagged, allowing you to refer back to them later. This is especially useful considering Twitter Search only displays tweets for up to 2 weeks.


4. Twitter: @myEN

evernote apps
Okay, this isn’t an app as such, but I felt I had to include it here because it is very handy. @myEN, which Mark covered a while back, is a Twitter account that lets you save tweets straight into Evernote. Using this service is simple. All you have to do is follow @myEN on Twitter and you will be direct messaged a link that will let you link up your Twitter and Evernote accounts. Afterwards, just add @myEN to the end of the tweets you would like to save.


5. Voice2Note

do more with evernote
Evernote already allows you to record voice notes, but they aren’t searchable and you have no cut and paste functionality. With Voice2Note, however, you can convert audio notes into text to make them easily searchable. Simply connect your Evernote account and the first 30 seconds of your notes will be transcribed.


Conclusion

If you aren’t a fan of Evernote but you like the idea of a web clipping utility, be sure to check out Saikat’s article on the 5 best Evernote alternatives.
What are some of your favorite Evernote add-ons?

Thursday 28 April 2011

Free Android apps outnumbered Free iPhone apps


Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo,
there are now more free apps available for Google's mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. And then there's Apple's sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage -- after all, this report doesn't highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 -- but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS's relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months' time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined -- a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer. [Source link requires registration]

Appolicious
sourceDistimo

Google Talk for Android Phones Gets Video Chat

If you’re on an Android device, you may know that there are already plenty of ways to conduct video and voice calls using various third party applications (Qik, Fring, etc.). But that functionality has never been included with stock builds of Android (at least, not for phones), the way Apple’s FaceTime
Thas been integrated into iOS for the last year. Today, that’s starting to change.
Google is currently rolling out an update to Nexus S devices that adds voice and video chat to Google Talk, which is included as part of the core set of Google applications that come pre-installed on many Android devices. The feature will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G wireless networks, and allows calls between phones, tablets, and any computer with Gmail and Google Talk enabled.
The update is gradually rolling out over the air (a process that usually takes a couple of weeks), and it also includes numerous bug fixes. The Nexus One will be getting an update as well, but it won’t include the video chat support (it doesn’t have a front-facing camera, though it would have been nice to have a voice-only feature for VoIP calls).
We should note that the tablet version of Android, Honeycomb, has actually offered video chat in Google Talk since it launched, but this is the first time it’s been available on phones. Google says that the feature will roll out to more Android 2.3+ phones in the future.

Is Reddit Eclipsing Digg in Traffic?

Digg’s precipitous plummet has left Reddit with a bigger-than-ever piece of the Internet pie, according to stats from three major traffic-tracking organizations.
In fact, according to two of these sources, Reddit is already the larger web property in terms of page views and visits.
For the first time ever Thursday, Alexa showed Digg’s reach being eclipsed by Reddit. According to the online ranking service,
Reddit is now the 117th most popular site on the web, while Digg has fallen to 138th.
To quote a famous animated bird, “I’m think I’m going to have a heart attack and die of not-surprise.”
Digg has been waning in every sense — staff, effect on the wider community of content creators, traffic — for quite some time. In fact, we can pinpoint the start of Digg’s serious troubles: the user-led revolt against the “New Digg”.
Simultaneously, Reddit was showing signs of significant growth. In fact, the site claimed it passed a billion page views per month this February.
Let’s take a look at the stats from a few sources. While their methods differ, most of these numbers tell the same basic story. Digg is trending downward, while Reddit is still on the rise.
Here’s a look at both unique visitors and site visits from Quantcast:


And here are similar stats from Compete.com:


Finally, we have data from Alexa showing reach and pageviews from the past six months (where you can see the trend gaining momentum) and the past seven days:

Will Digg’s not-so-slow decline end in obsolesence or acquisition? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[Article from Mashable]

Blackberry OS 6 Video leaked!



I was wondering that some tech blogs are talking about some pictures leaked for RIM Blackberry OS 6, but I found 'SOME' videos already on youtube. Enjoy this one

Stephen Elop: Nokia won't build just another tablet


Apple has a tablet. So does RIM. HP Palm too, soon enough. And Android tablets, particularly those running Honeycomb... they're everywhere -- hell, even Sony has a few on the way. That leaves Nokia as the glaring anomaly conspicuously absent from the tablet wars. Understandable, we guess, given the company's urgent need to transition its smartphone strategy to Windows Phone. That doesn't mean the company is standing still though. According to an interview with YLE television in Finland, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is taking a very calculated approach to tablets,
saying, "We could take advantage of Microsoft technology and software, and build a Windows-oriented tablet, or we could do things with some of the other software assets that we have. Our team right now is assessing what's the right tablet strategy for Nokia." In other words, Nokia is investigating tablets running Windows 7 (doubtful), MeeGo (doubtful), and Windows Next, aka that tablet-friendly Windows 8 OS (likely). But here's the most illuminating exchange from the well-mannered Canadian:

There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well. And, my challenge to the team is I don't wanna be the 201st tablet on the market that you can't tell from all of the others. We have to take a uniquely Nokia prospective and so the teams are working very hard on something that would be differentiating relative to everything else that's going on in the market.

Q. So you're not in a hurry?

We're always in a hurry to do the right things, but we're mostly in a hurry to do the right thing.
Makes sense to us and echoes what we've heard about Sony's relatively delayed entry into consumer tablets. Why should Nokia build another me-too tablet when it can tap into the combined Microsoft / Nokia ecosystem and make a grab at some real market share and profit? The entire 20 minute interview is interesting as Elop discusses layoffs, the first Nokia Windows Phone, Symbian, and competing against Apple and Google. Hit the source link for the full deal -- the tablet discussion begins at 10 minutes and 32 seconds.

[Thanks, Pauli N.]
By Thomas Ricker

Chrome OS machines leaked in bug reports: Acer netbook and touch-friendly Seaboard

Plowing through bug reports is a reliable way to dig up juicy morsels of info, and thanks to that timeless tactic we've got some specs on a pair of unannounced Chrome OS devices. First up is a netbook from Acer codenamed ZGB which, according to a recently filed report, will have a 1366 x 768 panel, presumably in the 10 to 12 inch range. We also know that you can hook up an external display to it via an HDMI port powered by an encoder chip from Chrontel. Since AMD's Fusion netbook platform supports HDMI natively,
we can also safely assume that the ZGB will be running the web-only OS on an Atom processor. That's where the details end for now but, hey, it's better than nothing.

The other device, Seaboard, has been floating around the Chrome OS flaw depot for some time, but reports are finally starting to reveal some tantalizing details. We now know that it is powered by a Tegra 2 and sports a touchscreen -- the perfect place to test out those finger-friendly tweaks we've heard so much about. There are also mentions of a "lid switch" and a physical keyboard, indicating it may be a convertible or something in the vein of the Eee Pad Slider rather than a pure slate. The hybrid form factor would make perfect sense since it will house a pair of USB ports and an HDMI jack, which could make for a rather chunky tablet. Obviously, neither of these devices are confirmed yet (and Seaboard is most likely being used for internal testing only) but at least we've got a better idea of what to expect when the browser-based OS comes to consumers later this year.

Is iCloud gonna be Apple's own music streaming service?


Okay, so if you had to guess a name for an Apple service that exists in the cloud it's pretty safe to say you'd pick "iCloud," right? Good, now that we're past the obvious, there are some slightly more compelling indicators out there
that this may indeed be what Apple is going to call its (presumably) soon-to-launch music streaming service. We received anonymous tips about this name in the past, and now Om Malik is reporting some interesting history, that the domain iCloud.com is owned by a company called Xcerion, which recently re-branded its cloud-based storage service from iCloud to CloudMe. TechCrunch reached out to the company and got a beautifully-worded non-denial talking about how the new name better embraces the company's cross-platform approach. That it does, but the timing is interesting. Obviously nothing is confirmed, but with Warner and at least one other of the big four record labels signed on, we'd guess the real name for this service should be drifting into view any time now.

sourceGiga Om, TechCrunch

First Look on Sony S1 and S2 PlayStation Tablets based on Android

Today I had my first look at the 2 new Sony Tablets!

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Hootsuite new features, including .li short URL

HootSuite has had a slew of announcements over the past couple of weeks, and today they launched several new URL shorteners that allay concerns users have had over the use of the .ly suffix (which tacitly supports the Libyan governing regime).
Owl.li and htl.li are 2 new options offered by HootSuite for URL shortening. Hailing from Liechtenstein, the new domains work the same way as the other HootSuite URL shorteners, Ow.ly and Ht.ly, by tracking clicks for statistical analysis, and both include the social bar.
Users can go try out the new .li shorteners by heading to their HootSuite accounts and doing the following:

  1. Choose on-the-fly via the pull down menu under the compose window
  2. Set as your default choice by choosing Settings, then Preferences, then selecting in URL Prefs tab
  3. Customize your feeds with chosen domain when adding an RSS/Atom URL
HootSuite has provided users an infographic for those who are using the other .ly domain options for shortening in order to illustrate how data travels from the server to the user, which it hopes will clear up any confusion about how and where their data is handled.

The company also offers additional information on how its use of the .ly domain works on its website.
Despite having some downtime as a result of the Amazon EC2 outage, the HootSuite team has had a very busy week, adding Spanish language support as well as the new URL shorteners. Plus, HootSuite has offered all of its users compensation for the downtime, which is something not many organizations have done.

Apple Announces iPhone white is out in stores tomorrow

It’s been a busy morning for Apple, the company has finally addressed the location ‘tracking’ debacle, but it has also softened the news with the announcement that the white iPhone 4 will begin to go on sale worldwide tomorrow, finally outing the mythical white device.
The white iPhone 4 will be available from the online and retail Apple Stores, becoming available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the US.

The announcement keeps to Apple’s original statement that it would release the device in Spring 2011. Colour discrepancies between suppliers had contributed to the delay of the smartphone, the white finish not reaching Apple’s notoriously high design standards.
With the white iPhone 4 going on sale, hopes of a June release for a next-generation iPhone look to have been dashed. Looking forward, we believe Apple will unveil its next iPhone around September time, keeping to its yearly product refresh.
In the US, the white iPhone 4 will retail price of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model on a two year contract.

Soundcloud and Spotify on the future of Online Audio


Sound will be bigger than video on the Web – that’s the assertion SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung made on stage during the first day at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam today.
You may think that the man behind the social audio sharing platform has a vested interest in such a statement, but he’s certainly passionate about his mission.
Audio is a “Speed-dial to the emotions,” Ljung argued, noting that audio use online is evolving to the point where people are learning not to just ‘read’ sound, but to ‘write’ it too. We’re becoming ‘Sound literate’, he believes.
To demonstrate this, Ljung discussed some of the ways that people are expressing themselves through sound. Demoing the iPhone app LaDiDa, he showed how people can turn a sung melody into a full song complete with backing track automatically. Closer to home, he discussed how a public company had been in touch with SoundCloud about publishing their earnings calls via the platform. He also highlighted PostSecret’s Living Voices project, which publishes poignant voicemail messages that tell personal stories.
Ljung also revealed that he listens to The Next Web’s Daily Dose in the shower each day; something we heartily recommend you do too.

Spotify and the power of social music

Ljung is clearly excited about audio’s potential and his talk was followed by Jonathan Forster of Spotify, who gave some fascinating insights into the power that the music streaming service can offer to musicians and labels in understanding the tastes of their listeners.
Spotify focuses on presenting music as a social object that you can share. As an example, Forster said that 75% of Spotify links shared on Facebook receive comments – showing how people are keen to share and discuss music online. Social engagement is important for Spotify – data shows that the more engaged a user is with the service, the more likely they are to become a subscriber. Presently, just over one million (around 10%) of the company’s users are paid subscribers.
Meanwhile, the data that can be extracted from the music that the service’s 10 million users are listening to is highly impressive. Spotify worked with the band Hurts to track listening activity around their album release. The company was able to compile a UK heatmap, showing the areas of the country that had the highest numbers of Hurts fans (London and Sheffield held particularly strong clusters).
Spotify’s data can identify peaks in listening data for particular songs, as well. Abba’s ‘Mamma Mia’ spiked in popularity in Norway on New Year’s Eve, and since then average daily listens for the song have been higher than they were before that spike. While the specific reason for this may be unclear, this is the kind of data that the music industry would undoubtedly love to see more of, helping to understand demand for, and popularity of, specific artists and songs. The ability to extract such data isn’t unique to Spotify, it shows how online music consumption empowers the industry to understand the market in more detailed ways than ever before.

“We still haven’t figured out what Spotify is”

Interestingly, while Spotify is known for music streaming now, don’t be surprised if it evolves over time. “We still haven’t figured out what Spotify is,” Forster said, suggesting that the service may well encompass more than it does now over time.
Spotify is keen to highlight independent musicians who are profiting from the service. He singled out Nomy, an independent Swedish musician who has been making music in his room and giving away for free online for nine years. He now makes a healthy living on Spotify, Forster said, although he hasn’t quit his dayjob as he enjoys the social side of it. Nomy has reached number 9 on Swedish Spotify top list – a significant achievement as 1-in-3 Swedes use Spotify regularly.
Oh, and we had to ask Forster about Spotify’s US launch (seriously, it’s compulsory!). His answer was that it took the company two years to obtain the relevant license to launch in Europe, so it was understandable that the biggest music market in the world would take time. “We’re honestly making progress,” he said, stating that “We think we’ll get there fairly soon.”
Audio online is at an exciting stage right now, and SoundCloud and Spotify’s presentations demonstrated this perfectly.

Is RIM Acquistion Tumble.me headed for the Playbook?

Research In Motion is continuing its "development by acquisition" strategy as it announced today that the company has acquired calendar and scheduling application Tungle.me. The words "calendar" and "BlackBerry" have been together a lot recently. That is because RIM's new tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, shipped without a native calendar, contacts or email clients, all of which RIM has promised for "later this summer." There is no official word yet if RIM plans on integrating Tungle into the PlayBook but it would make a lot of sense.

Android phones are the MOST WANTED, beating iPhone, Blackberry and others


Want an Android phone on your next upgrade? Well, you’re not alone… not by a long shot. According to a survey by Nielsen, when asked which smartphone users would want to buy most on their next upgrade,
the resounding answer was Android. The same survey was done last June – September, showing users wanted (by percentage) iOS (33%), followed by Android (26%), with Blackberry coming in last (13%).
However, this time the results showed:
  1. Android – 31%
  2. iOS – 30%
  3. Blackberry – 11%
  4. Windows Mobile – 6%
  5. Palm / WebOS – 1%
  6. Symbian – 0%
  7. Other – 1%
  8. Unsure – 18%
A 5% jump in consumer demand? Not bad, Google… not bad at all. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
[via mobileattack]

YouTube Founders are buying Delicious from Yahoo


Yahoo! promised in December that it would try to find a buyer for online bookmarking service Delicious, rather than shutting the service down. The search-engine giant kept its word with the help of YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.
Hurley and Chen will continue to operate Delicious and eye improvements to the service, according to Yahoo!, which acquired Delicious along with photo-sharing site Flickr in 2005. Financial terms of the transaction were not announced.

The statement from Yahoo!:
Today, YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen announced that they have acquired the Delicious technology from Yahoo!. They plan to continue the service that users have come to know and love and make the site even easier and more fun to save, share, and discover the Web’s “tastiest” content.
Providing a smooth transition for users is important to both companies. There will be a transition period where users can elect to sign up for a new account. Users’ public and private bookmarks will be maintained through the transition period and transferred as they are today when it is complete.
As we have said, part of our product strategy involves shifting our investment with off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation. We believe this is the right move for the service, our users, and our shareholders, and we look forward to watching the Delicious technology develop.
And a post on the Delicious Blog read:
Today, we’re pleased to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, they have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. They are committed to running and improving Delicious going forward.
Providing a seamless transition for users is incredibly important for both companies. Yahoo! will continue to operate Delicious until approximately July 2011. When the transition period is complete, your information will be moved over to Delicious’ new owner.
Starting today, we will ask you to login to Delicious again and agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to the new owner. That way, you’ll enjoy uninterrupted use of the service and will keep your account and all of your bookmarks when we make the transition. For more information on the Delicious transition, please refer to this FAQ.
Thank you for your patience in this time of transition and thank you for using Delicious!

Viewdle releases SocialMedia Camera for Android, with instant photo 'Tag' and 'Share'


Visual analysis company Viewdle this morning launched an Android app called SocialCamera that allows users to instantly tag photos, add captions and share them on Flickr or Facebook, by email or
MMS. The demo video below explains how the app works in more detail.
The Android application, which is still in beta and not to be confused with Justin.TV’s Socialcam app, is free of charge and should be available through Android Market today.
The first time you use the app, you’ll notice you’ll have to identify your Facebook friends. After that, however, the app will be able to detect and tag persons automatically, which is of course far more appealing an offer.
Also worth noting: you’ll need a device running Android 2.x with a 1GHz – or faster – processor to run the app. I tested it on an HTC Desire HD phone and it worked like a charm.
Viewdle was founded back in 2007 and last October raised $10 million in Series B funding from a group of investors including Best Buy, BlackBerry Partners Fund and Qualcomm.
On a sidenote: I organized my first Plugg conference back in March 2008, and the fledgling company took home the top prize at the startup competition that year (it later went on to win the one at Le Web, too).



inimize


Viewdle SocialCamera - Beta from Viewdle on Vimeo.

Check: Viewdle.com
Article From: TechCrunch

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Nokia Already Testing Windows Phone 7 Handsets


A leak has revealed that Nokia is currently testing Windows Phone 7 on two smartphone handsets
Reports have indicated that Nokia is testing two prototype handsets running Windows Phone 7.
The two handsets that Nokia is reportedly testing are said to be
running a forthcoming version of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) operating system.
Mango is due out later this year and it aims to close the gaps with Android and Apple’s iOS in a number of core areas. Despite Microsoft experiencing some problems recently in rolling out an update to its mobile OS, Mango is said to offer better multitasking and improved web browsing.

W7 And W8

Nokia has previously said that it intends to have Windows Phone 7 handsets out by 2012, but latest indications are that the Finnish handset giant could be looking to bring these handsets to market before the end of the year, as it seeks to regain lost ground.
Nokia has only just formally signed its partnership deal with Microsoft, announced in February, for the use of the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.
According to Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin, regarded as something of an industry source, the two Nokia handsets have been dubbed the W7 and W8. The first handset to market is expected to be the W7 prototype, which will be based on the Nokia X7 that has just been released.
The W8 will use the N8 at its starting point.
On his blog (in Russian) Murtazin said that W7 will feature a first generation 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250 processor, a capacitive touch screen that has a 4-inch AMOLED display, and an 8 MP camera with LED flash

Signs Are There

According to an interview with Nokia executive vice president Kai Oistamo and Microsoft phone unit President Andy Lees on All Things Digital, Nokia is confident that things are ahead of schedule and that considerable progress has been made since the February announcement in London.
“We’ve gotten to where we have gotten to faster than we thought,” Lees said. “Now we know who is exactly writing each piece of code.”
Both men said that in order to get to this point, there had been many conference calls, emails and meetings, as well as visits between Finland and Redmond.
Oistamo, meanwhile, said he was pleased with the technical work that has taken place in the past 60 days – including getting the first Nokia hardware running Microsoft’s operating system.
“A contract is just a contract,” Oistamo reportedly said. “The real thing is about creating something jointly together. The products are not done yet. But you can already see the signs. Everything that we talked conceptually with you in London is actually coming into real fruition.”
Meanwhile despite throwing its weight behind Windows Phone 7, Nokia remains publicly committed to support its Symbian OS through at least 2014. The company’s roadmap features new Symbian phones hitting the market in 2011 and 2012.

Facebook Deals launch in 5 US Cities, The latest rival to Groupon and LivingSocial

Facebook said late Monday that it would introduce Deals, an effort by the social networking giant to tap into the consumer frenzy over online discounts. With Deals, which had long been expected, Facebook is entering a crowded market led by overnight sensations like Groupon and LivingSocial.
Starting Tuesday, Facebook is releasing Deals as a “test” in five cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. The company, which has more than 600 million members, said it hoped that its ability to tap directly into the communications and activities of networks of friends will help it offer a more compelling service than
rivals. It will be easy to share deals with friends, see when a friend buys something and find offers that your friends are interested in, said Emily White, Facebook’s director for local. Facebook will focus on offers for things that are best done with friends, like concerts or events, she said.
“You can receive Facebook deals via e-mail,” she said. “But if there is a deal that is good for you, it will likely show up in your news feed at some point in the day.”
While many other coupon sites allow users to log in with their Facebook name and share deals with friends, Ms. White said Facebook Deals would become more tightly woven into the site.
“A lot of deal sites get that deals are social,” Ms. White said. “But I wouldn’t say they are really well integrated with Facebook.”
Facebook’s plan to introduce a rival to Groupon and LivingSocial has long been known. Last month, the company began allowing users who want to receive offers via e-mail to “Like” the Facebook Deals service.
Deals may well be a boost to another important Facebook program: Credits, the company’s virtual currency. Users will be able to buy Deals with a credit card or with Credits. Until now, Credits could only be used to buy virtual goods inside games and some digital products like movie rentals.
“It is first time it has been used to purchase a voucher that is redeemable for real goods,” Ms. White said. Facebook has made no secret of its plans to turn Credits into a major force in online payments.
Facebook will rely on its own sales force to find businesses interested in offering Deals. It will also tap other services that offer deals, including OpenTable, which focuses on restaurants, PopSugar City, which tailors offers to women, and Zozi, which focuses on outdoor activities like kayak excursions or wine-tasting tours.

YouTube to compete with iTunes and launching 'Movies-On-Demand' service


TheWarp has the exclusive on YouTube getting ready to launch their own movies on-demand service. The service will allow users to stream key Hollywood movies.

The key Hollywood studios have been searching for a competitor to iTunes that they can push and it seems as though YouTube is that key competitor.
It is expected that the new movies on-demand service could launch as soon as this week, but I would expect it in a few weeks time. Studios that have already signed include Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and Universal. So far only Paramount, Fox and Disney havent joined the service, but Im sure after a while they will follow (except Disney, who has Steve Jobs as the major shareholder).
You can check out the full details over at TheWarp.

New TweetDeck v2.0 for iPhone is here! New Version, (NOT update)

You all enjoyed the trailer, but now the year's biggest blockbuster has arrived at last. iPhone TweetDeck v2.0 is here!









In Hollywood they would call it a "re-imagining" - keep the essence of the original, but bring it bang up to date with a new team, top-class effects and plenty of scope for sequels. Ditch the camp soundtrack and overacting of Batman and Robin, and replace it with the cool car and new suit of Batman Begins.
With the all-new iPhone TweetDeck, we have done just that. Our team took the original iPhone app and distilled the essence of what made it so popular into a series of guiding principles. They then embarked on creating a brand new app from scratch, making use of all the latest technologies and design approaches, but all the while with an eye on those fundamental principles from the original.
After several months of feverish work, locked in the lab at the Batcave for hours on end, a new app was born. Like the change from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale, the new app is faster, more powerful, more flexible and, lets be honest, far more sexy.
We have put a huge amount of work into creating an app that embodies everything that is good about TweetDeck. Every aspect has been designed to work beautifully, from the big things like the swiping between columns, the navigation through user profiles and easy-as-pie Add Column flow, to the little things like the Pull to Update animations and the slick Follow/Unfollow slider.
And not only is new iPhone TweetDeck more beautiful, it offers a new flexibility that has never been seen before. Making the "pinch" gesture on a column give you access to options that will allow you to add any combination of your feeds into a column. Twitter timelines, Mentions, DMs Favourites, Lists, Searches, Facebook feeds....all can be blended together into columns that suit you. The Caped Crusader never had anything as cool as this.
Throw in retina-quality graphics and multi-tasking support and you have an app that really is the start of something special.
And of course, the app is totally free, which means you won't have to pull off any Joker-style bank raids in order to use it.
Downloading the app
You can download the iPhone TweetDeck v2 from the AppStore here.
The old TweetDeck apps have been temporarily removed from the AppStore as iPhone TweetDeck v2.0 is a brand new app, not an update, and we want to avert any confusion. However, the old apps will be updated soon to include a splash-screen directing you to download the v2.0 app.
iPad users, don't fret, your time will come! We are already working on optimising the new app for the iPad and we will be updating to a universal app in the next couple of weeks, once we have finished that work.

Help, support and feedback
Don't forget, this is only the start for our new app. We already have plans for point releases and will continue to update, fix and improve the app regularly. A key part of this process will be your feedback, which we always find hugely valuable. So please let us know what you think of the app, and alert us to any issues, via our dedicated Twitter account @iOSDeck.  We also have some support documentation here, which you might find useful to help you get started.
We hope you enjoy using this new generation iPhone TweetDeck. We really do feel it embodies the essence of what TweetDeck is, and look forward to being able to develop that further to bring you more features, more flexibility...and obviously more cowbell.

Feature Overview
Here's a summary of the great features in iPhone TweetDeck v2.0
All-new design
The new iOS TweetDeck uses the same design themes and elements that were first introduced in our Android app, and followed through to or Chrome app too.
Timeline

iOS4 compatible The app has been built to fully support the new features of iOS4, so you'll find retina-quality visuals and multi-tasking support as standard.
App_drawer

Your Columns, your way
Of course all the standard twitter column types are available: Mentions, DMs, Lists etc. We have also brought combined columns to iOS, so you can add your Home, Me and Inbox columns to combine updates from all your accounts. But perhaps the most exciting column feature is that you can customise the feeds that appear in your columns as you wish.
In the Home, Me and Inbox pre-defined columns you can choose exactly which accounts will be used. In any other column, you can just mix and match feeds as you wish. So if you want to see DMs from one account, blended with your Facebook news feed, plus a couple of Twitter Lists, then you can do. Fancy blending a Twitter search, with your Mentions and Favourites? No problemo!
You really do have the power to create totally flexible columns to suit your own needs. And every column has infinite scrolling, so you can easily go back and catch up on what you missed.
Column_edit

Long posts or short - it's up to you
Thanks to built-in support for Deck.ly, you can send long updates easily. Don't want to use Deck.ly? Just turn it off in the settings app
Deckly

Get around with gestures
Pinch inward on a column to access column settings - for adding feeds, repositioning and deleting the column. Tap the status bar to jump to the top of the column. Pull a column down to refresh.
Edit_columns

Immersive discovery
Explore Twitter profiles by swiping through feeds. Navigate through to tweet details, follow links, reach though to related profiles. Add any feed as a column with just one touch.
Profile

Follow the back-and-forth
The tweet detail view shows the full conversation, including, by pulling down on a tweet, any subsequent additions to the thread.
Convo

All the basics
All the standard Twitter functions that you expect are there: retweets, both old and new, replies, direct messages, favourites. And of course Facebook likes, comments and wall posts are a breeze.
Classy compose
The clean, fresh compose window offers posting from multiple accounts, photo uploads, geotagging, URL shortening and username autocomplete. And, as we mentioned above, long posts of more than 140 characters are possible thanks to Deck.ly integration.
A new foundation
iOS TweetDeck v2.0 has been built from the ground up to be stable and reliable, with frameworks in place to allow us to easily integrate new server-side processes like column sync as they are developed.

Written by: Richard Barley (blog.TweetDeck.com)

Monday 25 April 2011

First Playbook commercial add!

Free Download: Wordpress All-In-One for Dummies

Product Description

A convenient how-to guide for maximizing your WordPress experienceWordPress is a state-of-the-art blog publishing platform with nearly ten million active installations. Eight minibooks provide you with expanded coverage of the most important topics to the WordPress community, such as WordPress basics, theme designs, plug-in development, social media integration, SEO, customization, and running multiple sites. Veteran author Lisa Sabin-Wilson leads an authoritative team of authors who offer their unique knowledge and skillset while sharing invaluable advice for
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From the Back Cover

Express yourself with WordPress, the world's most popular blogging software (and it's free!)Tens of millions of bloggers rely on WordPress — no wonder you want to join them! But WordPress can be a teensy bit intimidating. That's why this friendly all-in-one guide covers everything from installing the software to developing plugins. Fret not, fearless blogger! Everything you need to know is in one of these handy, easy-to-use minibooks.
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    Download Wordpress All-In-One for Dummies

New Facebook 'Send' button, How to get your Facebook 'Send' Button for your blog/site?

Facebook has announced that their Groups feature now has over 50 million groups created. In response to this, they’ve added a new ‘Send’ button that will allow you to share items with your groups.
The Send button will exist alongside the ‘Like’ button as a way to share things with just a particular group, rather than with every friend you have on Facebook. This way only the people that share the same interest in that topic as you will see what you send.
The new type of button will also allow you to share something with a specific friend, which should bypass a lot of the spam in your feed and allow you to share specific items with individuals.

In addition to the new Share feature, Facebook has made changes to the way that you post items to groups. You can now post questions and polls privately to that group only. You can also upload entire albums to your group. This should work nicely for sharing a vacation you took with your closest friends without having your entire Facebook contact list see the images.
Group owners can now also approve people before they’re added to the group. The new Groups format will require that the owner upgrade to the new format and for each member to upgrade as well. Information on how to upgrade will be sent out to group owners and members over the next few weeks.
I built a sample button using Facebook’s new tool, you can see what it looks like below.


Starting today, the Send button will be available on 50 ‘leading’ websites and it will appear on more as the feature is rolled out. If you’re a website owner looking to roll out a Send button or a combined Like and Send button,


How to get your own Facebook 'send' button
If you’ve missed the news about Facebook’s new send button, make sure to drop by our coverage of it here. No worries, this piece will still be around when you get back.
Done? Good. Now, you’ll notice that it says that Facebook is rolling out the button to 50 sites. Feeling left out? No longer, my friends! You too can have your very own Facebook Send button, and it’s as easy as following a few simple steps:
Head to the Send Button page and create your button
Once created, make sure to tag it for different languages, and if needed adjust your width to accomodate them:

You can’t get referrals directly from the Send button just yet. Facebook says that the feature is coming soon. However, once implemented, the code is pretty simple:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the Send button likes to work with WordPress posts very well. At least it doesn’t work with our installation. As such, you’ll likely need to embed it into the footer or somewhere else on the page, if you’re using WordPress. That is, of course, until someone comes up with a WordPress plugin for the Send Button.

Showing related stories under each post (Blogger & Wordpress)


Showing related posts under each post on your blog keeps readers engaged and increases pageviews. By showing related posts, you are showing not only recent stories but also past stories from your blog archive, stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post.

To add a related posts widget to your blog, just go to LinkWithin.com. LinkWithin.com provides a free and easy to install related posts blog widget. No signup required, and it only takes a minute to get the LinkWithin widget up and running on your blog.
The LinkWithin widget can also be installed on WordPress (self-hosted) and other blogging platforms.

50 Free PSD Templates



PSD web templates are always come in handy for a web designer but it is extremely difficult to find out high quality freebie PSD web templates. Although there are some resources that you can use for the premium membership in order to get some high quality and creative PSD web templates but nothing can’t just beat the freebie collection.
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