Chocolate-Covered iPad Is the Gift that Keeps on Giving [PICS]

Stefan Magdalinski is now the front-runner in the “Guy of the Year” award for buying his wife a chocolate-covered iPad for her birthday, which he managed to get sent to South Africa.

Knowing that his beloved, @kerrching, really wanted an iPad for her birthday, Magdalinski reached out to some friends in London who were not only able to get him an iPad (it’s not yet available in South Africa), but were also able to coat it and freeze it in chocolate.

The results, we think, speak for themselves. The iPad is still in perfect condition and the chocolate coating is an extra layer of thoughtful kindness — and sweetness.

iPad App Brings Graffiti Culture to the Digital Realm [VIDEO]

Graffiti wasn’t always recognized as an art form, nor were its practitioners recognized as artists. What once began as a criminalized and illicit activity is now gaining traction as an art form, and with that comes the inevitable shift to the virtual realm.

Graffiti artist Phetus recently created a spray can app for the iPad, which went on to garner over a million downloads in less than a month, and hit number one in the “entertainment” category on iTunes in numerous countries.

What is it about graffiti that’s causing a buzz in the virtual realm? Is it safer to do it online? Has it become more acceptable if it isn’t in your face?

Tell us what you think.

Pair Arrested for Trying to Trade iPod Touch and Marijuana for iPad on Craigslist

Earlier this week, police arrested two men in Arizona for attempting to trade a third generation iPod touch and about seven grams worth of marijuana for a 32G iPad via an ad on Craiglist, a local ABC station reports.

After receiving a tip about the ad, which included photos of both the iPod touch and marijuana (see below), police officers sent an e-mail purporting to be interested in the exchange. When the police met up under the pretense of completing the trade, 20-year-olds Jacob Walker and Jacob Veldare were instead arrested when Walker offered up the marijuana. Both now face charges for possession and the attempted sale of an illegal substance.

Not only were the two unwise enough to post pictures of marijuana on Craiglist, but they were also gullible enough to believe that anyone would trade a 32G iPad, which costs $599 for the Wi-Fi version and $729.00 for the 3G version, for a $299 32G iPod touch and a quarter ounce of marijuana of dubious quality.

Hackers Break Into Reddit’s Gmail and Twitter Accounts

According to Reddit’s blog, the site’s official Gmail account – reddit@gmail.com – has been broken into. Luckily, it’s just an account for feedback email, so no user data or confidential information has been compromised. Following the security breach, Reddit has changed the feedback email to reddit@reddit.com.

From the blog: “We’re in contact with both google’s and twitter’s security team, and the site has not been broken into. All he’s done at this point is ruined everyone’s night. We don’t recycle passwords, and we don’t store passwords in the reddit email. No one’s account has been compromised. We don’t store any confidential information in that account; it is just for feedback email.”

Notice the part where it says that Reddit contacted Twitter’s security team? Yup, Reddit’s Twitter account was linked to the Gmail account, and it also got compromised, but Reddit has recovered it and deleted the tweets posted by the hacker(s).

Of course, the story about the breach reached the top of Reddit, as well, and one commenter asks an interesting question: Why does Reddit use a Gmail account for this purpose, anyway? One of the site’s moderators answers: “When we were much, much smaller (no mail server, etc) it was the easiest way for several people to get to the feedback account at the same time, and it stuck.”

So there you have it: as the company grows, it should continually update its security practices, otherwise it might find that certain solutions, that were good enough a couple of years ago, simply don’t cut it anymore.

Apple’s iOS 4: Here’s What’s New

One of the most exciting announcements from WWDC today was iOS 4, the iPhone’s new operating system.

The OS, which contains around 100 new and upgraded features, will be rolled out with the new iPhone 4 next month, and it will also be available as a free software update on earlier devices, including the iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and second and third generation iPod touch with 32GB or 64GB storage.

In his keynote address, Steve Jobs chose to highlight a select few of the iOS’s new features, including multitasking, iBooks, advertising and file management. But there wasn’t enough time to cover all the upgrades and improvements. Some of iOS 4’s features that slipped under the radar include app gifting, wireless keyboard support and many others.

We first learned about iOS 4 back in April. At that point, we knew multitasking would be coming to the iPhone “in a way that doesn’t hinder performance or battery life.” Today, Jobs confirmed and demonstrated services such as Pandora (Pandora) and navigation running in the background while other apps were also running in the foreground.



Two other hotly anticipated upgrades for iOS 4 are the Mail app’s major facelift and the all-new app organization functionality.



Now, users can organize their iPhone apps into separate folders for better organization and easy access. iOS 4 will be able to manage up to 2160 applications on a device. Folders will feature the familiar drag-and-drop functionality that Apple device users know and love.

Email on the iPhone is also getting a major overhaul in iOS 4. You’ll be able to view messages from all your accounts in a single, integrated inbox. Messages will be threaded, and you’ll be able to open attachments using third-party apps, as well.

Apple made some significant announcements for multimedia functionality, too. iOS 4 will support custom playlist creation for iTunes, tap-to-focus video, 5x zoom for camera functions, and a Photos feature called “Faces and Places,” which allows users to sort and view photos based on where they were taken and who appears in them.

Finally, applications can now be gifted to friends and family, the background wallpaper on your home screen can be easily changed, a spell-checker has been built into Mail and other apps, and Bluetooth (Bluetooth)-enabled wireless keyboards will now play nicely with the operating system.

Microsoft Responds to Google Dumping Windows: Our OS Is Secure

After recent rumors that Google is internally abandoning Windows and switching to Linux because of security concerns, Microsoft fires back at critics, claiming it’s doing more than its competitors when it comes to security.

“When it comes to security, even hackers admit we’re doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it’s not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others,” Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc says in a blog post.

He also lists some facts to support his claim, citing several security improvements in Windows (Windows) 7, like Parental Controls, Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), BitLocker disc encryption and an enhanced Windows Firewall. Furthermore, Microsoft ships software and security updates “as soon as possible through Windows Update and Microsoft Update to keep our customers safe,” he says.

LeBlanc is, however, careful not to say (at least not outright) that Windows 7 is the most secure OS out there. The reason is simple: Microsoft’s Windows operating systems have historically had far more security-related issues than, say, Mac OS.

It all boils down to the old question: Are hackers and malware writers targeting Windows because it’s not secure enough, or because it’s the biggest target out there? It’s a very tough question to answer, and while Microsoft’s attitude towards security has improved tremendously in recent years, critics will continue to use this argument against it. Who would have thought that having a 91% share of the OS market has its downsides?

Bing Cashback Is No More

After two years and multiple iterations, Bing Cashback is being shut down due to a lack of adoption.

Cashback first launched in May 2008 as Live Search CashBack. The program was simple: search for deals using Microsoft’s search engine. Buy products from search results with the coin icon and you received a bit of cash back from your purchase. It gained some traction after it launched, enough that Microsoft brought the program to Bing.

However, Cashback hasn’t picked up in popularity like Microsoft hoped. In a blog post earlier today, the company announced that it is nixing the program:

“In lots of ways, this was a great feature – we had over a thousand merchant partners delivering great offers to customers and seeing great ROI on their campaigns, and we were taking some of the advertising revenue and giving it back to customers. But after a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for.

So we are taking all the learning from the effort and putting it into some new programs for you and our advertisers designed to provide amazing shopping experiences for consumers and great opportunities for advertisers. ”



Bing Cashback will remain operational until July 30th. After that, the program will be shut down, although Cashback users will have a full year to redeem their rewards.

The idea was solid one — offer incentives for searchers to buy through Bing’s (Bing) partners — but it just never picked up steam. As some have pointed out, things could have been different if Microsoft had tried something like group buying, which has become a multi-billion-dollar trend.

We barely knew you, Bing Cashback.

HTC EVO 4G Now Available

As previously announced, the highly anticipated 4G smartphone, HTC EVO 4G, is now available in the U.S. Customers can purchase the device at Sprint retail stores, RadioShack, Best Buy and Walmart, as well as through Sprint.com.

The device costs $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate (taxes excluded).

You can read our hands-on review of the HTC EVO 4G here; in short, it’s a very advanced smartphone with top-of-the-line hardware and capable of 4G data transfer speeds, which is about 10 times faster than current 3G speeds.

To highlight the HTC EVO 4G launch, Sprint today started a major social media campaign, called Sprint Firsts, which encourages users to perform various activities at 4G speeds and let their friends know about it. Participants are being awarded 4G badges, and users who manage to be the “first” will get featured on the EVO homepage.

Yelp for iPhone Adds Foursquare-Like Badges and Royalty Status

The new iteration of Yelp’s iPhone app isn’t live just yet, but a company blog post gives a window into what’s coming very soon: badges, and a hierarchy of “royalty” that lets you “rule” venues, neighborhoods, and even cities.

The royalty feature is much akin to Foursquare’s (Foursquare) mayorship feature, and lets Yelp (Yelp) users with the most checkins become the “Duke” or “Duchess” of a particular venue. Yelp goes a step further with the hierarchy, however, offering users with most Dukedoms in a particular neighborhood to be named the “Baron” and even a “King” to be crowned for most Dukedoms in an entire city.

The company itself acknowledges in the blog post that “we’re not the first ones to offer checkins,” but that adding these features “furthers Yelp’s mission of connecting people with and supporting great local businesses.” Yelp also provides some statistics behind why they’re investing in new mobile features: a full 27% of all searches on the review site come from their iPhone app.

Yelp has submitted this 5th major iteration of its app for Apple’s smartphone, which should become available in the App Store (App Store) soon. The company also notes that Android (Android) owners won’t have long to wait either until the new functionality hits the Yelp client on that platform; we got a sneak peek of what Android users have to look forward to at Google (Google) I/O.

It may be derivative at this point, but it nevertheless stands to add a fun element to the process of checking in to locations. The addition of higher order titles in the royalty hierarchy for being the most active in your neighborhood or city are an interesting new spin on the concept as well. What do you think of Yelp’s move into the game mechanics territory of location services that Foursquare earlier blazed?

Apple’s New Direction: Will the Tablet Replace the PC?

Yesterday at the D8 conference in Los Angeles, Steve Jobs laid out his vision of what’s to come. While Apple’s CEO went in-depth on a plethora of interesting subjects (e.g. Adobe Flash, the lost iPhone, iAds), he spent much of the stage time talking about the future of computing, specifically the PC.

Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg of AllThingsD asked Jobs whether the tablet is going to replace the laptop. Jobs’s response was an analogy:

“When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy.”

That short exchange says a lot about the direction Apple could take computing over the next decade. Apple still sells the Mac and the Macbook, and while the term “PC” is now synonymous with WindowsWindowsWindows machines, the meaning of PC — personal computer — can also apply to the Mac and Macbook.

Was Apple’s CEO referring to not only Windows PCs, but Macs as well? It’s tough to say for certain, but I think it’s very likely. Jobs clearly thinks PCs are on the way out, in favor of the more portable, less complex tablet and mobile form factors. His iPad has already validated the market for tablets, and we expect many more tablets to enter the market over the next few years.

Apple lost the PC market to Microsoft years ago. If Jobs has his way though, that won’t matter — the market will shift towards mobile computing devices like the iPhone and the iPad, both of which Apple has complete control over. The tech titan doesn’t have full control over the Mac OS or its desktop, which must be frustrating to a man who relishes control.


Will the tablet replace the PC? Not in the next decade, at least. Hell, the Windows XP operating system is still the world’s most popular OS. It takes time for disruptive technologies to take hold.

For now, the tablet will be a complementary device to the PC. The PC has had far more time to be fleshed out and performs countless tasks faster and better than the iPad or any other tablet device on the market. In a decade though, we may be singing a different tune.

Apple Shows Us What HTML5 Can Do

Apple is one of the biggest supporters of HTML5, and Steve Jobs clearly states he thinks this new web standard is the future of the web. To show what, exactly, it means by that, Apple launched a HTML5 showcase, displaying what a HTML5-capable browser can do without the need to install any additional plugins.

In typical Apple style, the showcase consists of simple, elegant, and yet quite impressive demos of this technology. In one demo, you can type in some text, quickly change the font, its size and transparency, rotate it or add a shadow effect. Another lets you browse through a horizontal, vertical or grid-shaped gallery of images, while a particularly impressive demo lets you spin a 3D object by clicking and dragging.

Apple’s message is clear: HTML5 is mature enough for wide adoption, and sites which require add-ons to display content are a thing of the past. The text on the site states: “Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web.” Yes, you can definitely cover a lot of ground that used to belong to Flash with HTML5. What Apple doesn’t tell us is that one could create a similar showcase in Flash with far more advanced effects, which are way out of reach of HTML5 and CSS3.

To try out any of the demos you’ll need to download the latest version of Safari.

First Sprint EVO Commercial Hits YouTube [VIDEO]

This interesting Sprint EVO commercial has just hit the tubes — and the TVs, as well.

For the network’s red-hot-though-as-yet-unlaunched device, the marketing folks have decided to make some pretty grandiose comparisons. Let’s gloss over whatever the narrator is saying, which is something along the lines of, “First isn’t later; it’s now.” If you have any idea what that means, you get a prize.*

*Not really.

Moving on to the imagery, we first see a prehistoric-looking wheel rolling into a velocipede, which tumbles into a locomotive standing on end. This turns into a domino chain of famously game-changing, ground-breaking inventions knocking into one another. A phonograph knocks over a microscope (we’re hoping this isn’t intended to be chronolgical), which bashes into a typewriter and a dangling cluster of lightbulbs. A telephone, a camera, an automobile and a wall of televisions also line up for our consideration.

Without belaboring the point any further, which Sprint indeed does, the company is comparing the phone, one in a string of similar devices such as the iPhone and the Droid, to space travel and microprocessors.

We don’t think so. It’s cool, and we get that Sprint wants us to know it’s the first 4G device, but they didn’t reinvent the wheel. Or space travel.

While this bit of filmic whimsy might appeal to some, I personally preferred the hard, cold awesomeness of the robotic arms in the Motorola Droid ads. What do you think of this commercial? Is Sprint exaggerating the EVO’s impact? Or is it a cool bit of advertising that will speak to more people than previous smartphone campaigns?

Skype iPhone 3G App Downloaded 5 Million Times

On Sunday, Skype 2.0 was launched for the iPhone 3G, bringing a long-sought feature to the table: making calls over 3G. By now, 5 million users downloaded the application from the iTunes Store, showing just how important this feature was to users.

Unfortunately, the new feature came with an unpleasant announcement: after August 2010, Skype will start charging a monthly fee for the 3G calling feature – on top of whatever fee you’re already paying your mobile operator for data transfer.

Skype promises the fee will be reasonable. “We’re not going to want to price ourselves out of the market. I can’t ignore the fact that consumers (currently) use us for free,” said Russ Shaw, Skype’s general manager for mobile. Still, one cannot help but wonder how the users will react when faced with a double fee for mobile VoIP calls. How do you feel about it? Will you continue using Skype over 3G after the fee is introduced? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Facebook and Google Maps Dominate Smartphone App Usage [STUDY]

Nielsen has released a new mobile application report and its findings showcase not only the increase in smartphone usage, but also what applications are most popular. For its report, Nielsen surveyed more than 4,200 people who had downloaded a mobile application in the last 30 days.

The survey really highlights just how much smartphone ownership trails traditional feature phone ownership, at least in the U.S. Nielsen’s study shows that 21% of American wireless subscribers have smartphones.

Still, even non-smartphone users have heavily embraced mobile apps. Nielsen’s survey indicates that the average number of apps that a feature phone user has on his or her device is 10, while the average number of apps a smartphone user has is 22.

Broken down even further, the average number of installed apps based on smartphone OS looks like this:

* BlackBerry: 10
* iPhone: 37
* Android (Android): 22
* Palm: 14
* Windows Mobile: 13

Most Popular Smartphone Apps

While the specific applications vary from platform to platform, the most popular apps across smartphones were pretty consistent in this report: Maps, weather, Facebook and music all had strong showings.

Check out this chart which breaks down the five most popular apps by smartphone OS:



It’s interesting to see just how much Facebook dominates the mobile app space; it’s one of the top five apps on each of the platforms highlighted. Still, Nielsen notes that broken down by demographic, MySpace (MySpace) is still very popular among teens and that LinkedIn (LinkedIn) is strong in the 25-44 demographic.

Asus to Launch App Store for Netbooks

While Asus is making headlines in the tablet category, it’s also revamping its netbook offerings.

The company announced today that it will be opening an app store for netbooks later this year.

The store is reminiscent of the Intel AppUp Center. The Asus app store will be a destination for netbook owners to find netbook-specific or netbook-optimized software that will play nicely on smaller screens, and with the OSes and processors an Asus netbook might sport. The software will come preloaded on all the company’s WindowsWindowsWindows netbooks starting later this year.

The iPad Really Is Magical [VIDEO]

Christina Warren About 21 hours ago Christina Warren 11
The iPad Really Is Magical [VIDEO]
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Thought all that talk from Steve Jobs about how “magical” the iPad is was just over-amped hyperbole from a guy in a Gap turtleneck? Meet magician Shinya. Shinya proves just how much magic you really can squeeze out of an iPad with some clever video work (note the subtle cuts) and well-choreographed sleight-of-hand.

We think it’s pretty awesome!

10 Free Android Apps to Boost Your Productivity

If you value efficiency and effectiveness, then your Android device should be your best friend. These tech toys are capable of handling all kinds of work and personal tasks, from email and schedules to file management and to-do lists. And all the tools you need are conveniently located right in the Android Market. With so many choices, however, things can get a little complicated.

Here are ten highly rated, absolutely free Android (Android) apps that will help you work smarter, get more accomplished, save time and stay organized.
1. Dropbox (Dropbox)

Downloads: 50,000-250,000
Rating (Rating): 4 stars

Dropbox is great because it’s not just a mobile app; it allows you to manage files in fully synced folders from desktop and mobile devices. Dropbox’s Android application allows users to access a Dropbox — and any kind of content it contains, including music and movies — from anywhere. Users can also upload files, such as images and links, to their Dropbox account. This video will give you an idea of how it works:


User comments:
“So helpful!”
“This worked perfectly for me.”
“A solid start for a free app.”
2. CamCard Lite
Downloads: 10,000-50,000
Rating: 4 stars

This simple application allows you to snap pictures of business cards and automatically import that information to your virtual Rolodex. CamCard Pro is also available as a paid app for $9.99; both versions of the app support multiple languages – from English to traditional Chinese.



User comments:
“High accuracy, impressive!”
“Did a fair job of getting info off the card.”
3. GDocs
Downloads: 50,000-250,000
Rating: 4 stars

GDocs is a text editing application that allows you to access, view, edit and sync documents stored in a Google Docs (Google Docs) account. It also lets users create, send, import and export documents.



User comments:
“I like being able to make notes and edit documents and sync them back to my Google (Google) account.”
“Basic text works fine.”
“Pretty useful.”
4. Springpad (springpad)
Downloads: 5,000-10,000
Rating: 3.5 stars

Springpad is brand-new to the Android Market (Android Market), but has been getting rave reviews from users on other devices. Like Evernote (Evernote), this app allows you to save items in a virtual notebook. But it doesn’t just save these items; it also pulls in data from other sites and helps you take action on your lists, not just remember them.

Skype for iPhone Now Supports 3G Calling

There’s good news and bad news. The good: Skype 2.0 for iPhone [iTunes link] lets you make calls over 3G. The bad: After August, you’ll need to pay for the feature.

That’s right: The most yearned-for feature of Skype (Skype) for iPhone, making calls over 3G, is finally here. The new app just landed in the app store, and by all accounts the 3G calls hold up fairly well.

Here’s the catch: After August 2010, Skype will start charging a “small monthly fee” for use of the 3G calling feature. You heard that right — even though you’re already paying AT&T (in the U.S., at least) for your data plan, Skype is throwing in an extra fee. At this point we’re not sure if the move is Skype’s own doing, or if the network operators had a hand in trying to make the Skype app a less desirable option.

WARNING: Facebook Malware Attack on the Loose

A Facebook phishing attack is on the loose this weekend — the third widespread attack on the site in the past three weeks. The attack attempts to steal your Facebook login credentials, install malware on your computer, and even get your home address.

The attack is spread via a “hilarious video” posted to Facebook walls, reports WebSense — when clicked, a form appears requesting your Facebook login.

The attack then returns you to Facebook, installs an app called “Media Player HD”, and asks you to download the “FLV player” — doing so installs malware on your machine. It gets worse: Depending on your location, you may also be presented with a contest to win an iPad … if you just enter your home address.

To avoid getting caught, simply remove the “hilarious video” if you find it on your FacebookFacebookFacebook wall. If you see it elsewhere on Facebook, don’t click it … and of course remember the obvious rule: Don’t enter your Facebook login anywhere other than Facebook.com.

If you already fell for the attack, change your Facebook password, uninstall the Facebook app (often called “Media Player HD”), and run a virus/malware scan on your computer.

The video below, courtesy of Websense, explains the attack.

DIY iPad Wall Mount [VIDEO]

It’s been spotted in the car and in the kitchen cabinet, but the newest custom locale for the “magical” iPad? Swivel-mounted to the bedroom wall.

YouTube (YouTube) user dim3m cooked up this DIY wall mount setup out of a VESA TV mount and an iPad case to create a $40 articulating iPad stand. It looks like a nice, flexible solution for hands-free media watching that requires little actual construction and won’t break the bank. Check out the video below for the mount in action. The second video showcases the new and improved painted version with speakers.

Have you seen any other creative custom locations for the iPad? Let us know!


iPad Wall Mount


Barb Dybwad About 1 day ago Barb Dybwad 9
DIY iPad Wall Mount [VIDEO]
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It’s been spotted in the car and in the kitchen cabinet, but the newest custom locale for the “magical” iPad? Swivel-mounted to the bedroom wall.

YouTube (YouTube) user dim3m cooked up this DIY wall mount setup out of a VESA TV mount and an iPad case to create a $40 articulating iPad stand. It looks like a nice, flexible solution for hands-free media watching that requires little actual construction and won’t break the bank. Check out the video below for the mount in action. The second video showcases the new and improved painted version with speakers.

Have you seen any other creative custom locations for the iPad? Let us know!
iPad Wall Mount


iPad Wall Mount 2.0

Amazon to Launch Thinner, Sharper Kindle to Compete with iPad

Facing increasing pressure from Apple’s red-hot iPad, Amazon intends to fight back with a thinner, sharper and more responsive Kindle that will be introduced later this year.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon will introduce a new version of its popular e-reader in August. It will boast a thinner build, sharper contrast, and faster page-turning. However, it will not be a touchscreen device, nor will it boast color.

Apple is gunning directly for Amazon’s e-book business with its iBooks store, which publishers have embraced as an alternative to Amazon’s long-standing dominance in the e-book space.

The iPad’s multitude of uses and starting price point of $499 are a threat to the Kindle, although the iPad’s LED screen isn’t as well suited as the Kindle for extended reading. The Kindle utilizes black-and-white e-ink technology to make reading on the device less strenuous on the eyes.

While the upgrade should help Kindle stay relevant, we’re likely to see color and a touchscreen on Amazon’s e-reader device at some point. In February, the company acquired Touchco, a startup specializing in color touchscreen technology. It’s going to be some time though until Amazon is satisfied with a touchscreen interface that is also easy on the eyes.

The Muppets Celebrate Memorial Day with “American Woman” Cover [VIDEO]

It ain’t a holiday without a little musical accompaniment courtesy of the Muppets — or at least that seems to be the trend of late. The Muppets Studio has released a new video on its YouTube (YouTube)channel in honor of Memorial Day featuring Sam the Eagle’s take on The Guess Who’s “American Woman.”

The furry puppets have been dominating the ‘net lately — they dropped in at Lost headquarters not too long ago, and even picked up a Webby for their rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

It’s good to see that Sam & Co. aren’t taking the three-day weekend as an excuse to slack off, unlike you, Sir or Ma’am, currently surfing the web. Now watch this vid and get back to that spreadsheet!

5 Steps to Taking Customer Service Social

Lauren Vargas is a Community Manager at Radian6, the social media monitoring and engagement platform. She blogs at Communicators Anonymous and is @VargasL on Twitter.

The debate over who owns the customer still looms in the shadows of company hallways and conference rooms. There is no one right answer because every department, team and employee owns the customer and takes part in shaping a positive customer experience.

Customer service is no longer an area to triage customer complaints. It’s about anticipating customer needs at the right time and place. Organizations must relearn how to interact with their community, shed some of the heavily automated barriers, and get back to the basics of customer service.
1. Apply Your Current Service Strategy to Social Media

To get where you’re going, sometimes it’s helpful to learn more about out where you’ve been.

Most likely, your company has a customer service and response strategy in place to handle issues through e-mail, chat and phone. Avoid reinventing the wheel by creating new response strategies and processes. Take time to review how customer inquiries and outreach are currently being handled. What are the customer service goals? Do any current processes need to be updated? Can current strategies be adopted for social media implementation?

Answer these questions, and you are not only improving your company’s customer service, but making it possible for any person in your organization to take on this task.
2. Put Human Relationships Back Into Your Service

The human element has been taken out of the customer service experience in many companies and replaced with automated messages and prompts. By the time a human operator is reached, their responses are often scripted and they do not have the authority or knowledge to solve complex issues. As elementary as it may sound, organizations need to empower their workforce to go beyond canned responses and develop a more relationship-building approach to customer service, as opposed to one-off interactions.

Adding social back into the customer service mix does not involve throwing out processes already in place, but improving upon them. Begin by establishing customer engagement policies. Social media policies and guidelines can provide the education and structure for how to engage online, and empower your workforce to operate within accepted and encouraged boundaries with the freedom to be themselves.

Next, coordinate a system of gathering information, categorizing, segmenting and analyzing customer engagement that is transparent within your company. Finally, establish workflows to distribute customer engagement responsibilities throughout the organization to ensure the right person is interacting with the right customer at the right time.
3. Establish a Knowledge Base

The customer service department is often separated from the rest of the company, training and operating in a “silo.” Bring customer service agents out from the shadows and provide them with the training they need to engage customers on their turf within the social web.

Establish a company wiki where all departments can contribute social media knowledge and lessons learned. Train agents beyond their role. Develop subject matter experts who can handle taking conversations to the next level and solve issues in real-time on the channel of the customer’s choice.

In turn, allow your customer service agents to be the teachers and share best practices from the trenches of phone, e-mail and chat support. What are the frequently asked questions? How do agents currently deal with sticky customer issues? What actionable insights can be gleaned from the types of issues and responses from inbound calls, e-mail and chat? Your customer service agents can illuminate new paths and caution you in areas they have already explored.
4. Set Expectations



One of the goals and challenges of providing customer service through social media channels is to mine data for actionable insights that will enable highly personal and proactive service. Determine the channels where the bulk of your customer conversation is occurring. Avoid the trap of participating in all channels to serve all customers, which may only overextend your team. Pinpoint the channels your organization can afford to place resources and invest in community participation. Then, analyze these areas for broader trends. Online channel behavior is not indicative of your total customer base, but tying this data back to traditional CRM analysis can yield valuable insights for your response strategy.

Further, just like your customer service department has set hours of business, so should your service in social channels. Conversations are 24/7, and issues may arise in off hours, but it is essential to set expectations of service up front. Your workforce may choose to handle issues off the clock within the framework of your organization’s social media guidelines, but you should clearly outline this capacity in your profile or bio.
5. Perform Quality Assurance

Online interaction offers a glimpse into what your customers think about your company, workforce, products and/or services. Embrace this culture of feedback even though the majority of conversations may not occur in your own managed communities.

Improve your online engagement by asking the community about your performance. Similar to a typical call center experience, after an agent or employee has an exchange on Twitter (Twitter) or another social channel, send the person a survey about their recent online customer service exchange. Use this feedback to assist in overall response strategies and evaluation of participation in social channels.

Maintain patience and consistency by first establishing measurable goals and objectives of how your organization will engage in the social space. Align these metrics with overall business goals. Talk to the marketing, communication and sales departments to establish metrics that will measure your collective efforts and give a holistic view of the customer’s online behavior.

Benchmark your progress. Take time to reevaluate processes, take action on feedback and don’t give up because of some rocky roads. There were rough times when e-mail and chat were implemented. Social media interaction will have growing pains just like any other business channel, but you have to make the investment.
Conclusion

Each company must forge its own path to integrating social into the customer service mix. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. That is how we got to this heavily automated customer service triage position in the first place.

The companies that are embracing social media as a service solution are succeeding because they realize their employees are the best company evangelists and operators of front-line engagement. Those organizations that treat their employees as humans are also those who are treating their customers as humans, and not a faceless CRM number.

Guest Post: Blog2Print/Blogger

Posted by Caroline Vanderlip, CEO SharedBook


Since we announced the Blog2Print/Blogger program last Fall, we at Blog2Print have been busy enhancing Blog2Print in response to user feedback and requests. Our goal is to maintain the integrity and ease of the blog–to-book creation process while providing you with more editing power and control over your blog books.

I’m pleased to tell you we now offer two different layout options for your blog books: Compact and Snapshot. Compact, the original page layout, arranges your blog posts, captions, and photos into a page that makes the best use of space and minimizes the number of total pages. The new layout, Snapshot, keeps the positioning of captions, photos, and text as it appeared in your posts online.

Meanwhile, we understand that some posts just aren't meant to be preserved, and you should be able to decide which posts you put in your book. Now you can, as individual posts can easily be deleted from your blog book. Especially when given as a gift – sometimes a little editing is needed here or there before a blog book is gift ready. And speaking of gifts, you can now buy a Gift Card for Blog2Print.

A few more changes: we’ve raised the maximum number of photos to 1500 in one book, added Safari support, and modified the User Agreement to clarify that bloggers continue to own all of their content and can resell their books if they choose – just make sure you own all relevant copyrights.

With your invaluable feedback, Blog2Print continues to evolve and improve. Please – keep asking! We’ll keep delivering.

How the Google Page Creator shutdown may affect your blog

By Wiktor Gworek, Software Engineer (Krakow, Poland)

A while back, Google announced that they were shutting down Google Page Creator and offered users the option to upgrade to Google Sites. In the past, some custom template designers used Page Creator to host javascript, a file type that Google Sites does not support. Since a number of bloggers use templates that rely on files hosted on Page Creator, we realized that links to those files would break once the migration from Page Creator to Sites was complete.

Fret not! Rather than see our users' templates break, we built a tool to preserve these links and host the affected files. To find out if your blog is affected, login to your Blogger Dashboard. If we've detected that your blog template contains links to Google Page Creator, you will see the following warning:



f you see this warning, click Update and review to access the Blogger Template Fixer and correct the links on your blog. (Note: you may not notice any problems with your blog until Page Creator shuts down over the coming days). Visit our Help Center to learn more about fixing your template.

Also, if you have issues fixing your template, let us know at the Blogger Help Group.

Fake BP Public Relations Twitter Account a Viral Hit [INTERVIEW]

After oil started spewing into the Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil rig explosion almost a month ago, a Twitter account launched purporting to be BP’s public relations group, @BPGlobalPR. The account, which offers dark, satirical commentary about the spill and cleanup efforts, is run by an anonymous person (I know for a fact that he’s a “he”), who responds to all media inquiries as “Terry.” Mashable contacted “Terry” in an attempt to find out more about the man behind the Twitter stream.

We were ardently hoping that “Terry” would drop the act (if it is, in fact, an act) and tell us who he really is. Unfortunately, homeboy kept in character throughout the entire e-mail interview, which we’re pasting below.

We’re fairly certain that the real BP is not behind the account — the company said as much to CNN. In fact, it’s far more popular than the official feed; after launching last week, @BPGlobalPR has more than 55,000 followers, while @BP_America has just under 7,000. (Although someone apparently hacked into the official account today and posted a tweet from “Terry” that says, “Terry is now in charge of operation Top Kill, work will recommence after we find a XXL wetsuit. #bpcares #oilspill.” The tweet has since been removed).

Check out our interview below and let us know what you think in the comments.

“Hi Brenna! I really like being interviewed by women first of all. You know what I call men who are journalists? Pickledicks. LOL. The guys said I should be the one who does the interviews ’cause I’m the smartest, which is also why I do all the hard work. It does kinda suck, though, because the other guys have so much fun all day playing grab-ass and XBox and beer pong. Ah, well.”

Why did you start this Twitter account?: “I work for BP Global PR. The reason we do PR is very simple, it’s the best job you can have. You see, corporations screw up all the time. They are very worried that the screwups are going to cost them a lot of money. They pay people like me a TON of money to make it look like they’re doing stuff, but really we don’t have to do much except talk. Our talking buys them time to figure out how they are going to sweep it all under the rug and go back to making lots of money. I get paid to talk and waste time and I get paid a lot. So why do we do this, because its our job and we love money!”

How did you amass so many followers in such a short amount of time? What was the tipping point for you?: “We got a lot of followers because we’re really good at our job. Also Roger Ebert tweeted our tweet about how our oil wasn’t good for dolphins and a lot of people like him for some reason. To be honest, the review he gave Transformers 2 (my fave movie of 2009) was a little out of line, but whatever.”



Who runs the account? Is it just you or a few other people?: “We’ve got a real brain trust running the account. The other guys do most of the tweeting, but I do most of the work and I also do a lot of dares every day. I guess I’m kinda the star, so that’s pretty cool. I have my own Twitter I’m starting up @BPTerry, but I got so frustrated trying to get to the page today I gave up. Turns out I accidentally typed www.twitter.corn. The guys gave me hell for that one.”

You appear to be selling “BP Cares” shirts via your Twitter account to benefit healthygulf.org. What’s the deal with that?: “I really messed up with the ‘BP Cares’ shirts. I wish we could drop it. Long story short, everyone was really mad at BP about the oil spill, so naturally we decided to make a ton of T-shirts to give to everyone to make them like us again. I got the design, put it in the T-shirt machine and I guess I spilled ink on it or something ’cause all the shirts are messed up. To make matters worse, I broke the controls and the thing wont stop making the damn shirts. No one can turn it off. Also, I signed some stupid paperwork that made it so I have to give all the money we make to www.healthygulf.org. I’ll tell ya, everyone was so pissed about this. We are literally losing thousands of dollars to them. The only reason I still have my job is cause I ate some oil on a dare.”

How much time a day do you spend tweeting/interacting with followers? What has been the most interesting interaction so far?: “I work about five hours a day at BP headquarters and am always the last one in the office. Interesting interactions? Felicia Day liked our tweets; Alyssa Milano liked our tweets, too.

I was hoping i could maybe meet Felicia or take her on a boatride through the gulf, but she hasn’t gotten back to us. Also, @Wired said some weird stuff about us, so we all decided they were pickledicks and we hate them.”

“I’ll admit I’m not that smart, but they write a magazine about computers. They use PRINT to talk about new technology. I mean, that’s some real pickledickery. I’ll bet those idiots write letters about e-mails. Also, right when we reached 50,000 followers we noticed a fake account w/ a bunch of typos and we had to call them out.”

What kind of feedback have you been getting from the public?: Everyone thinks we’re funny. To be honest, we’re all mostly confused by that. We’re just trying to think of solutions for this stuff and report the news. But I’m told that we’re doing great. Hoping for a bonus so I can invent the hoverboard.”

And, finally, who are you really? What’s your day job, where do you live and what are your goals with this Twitter account?: “This question doesn’t make sense. I’m Terry; I can’t tell you my last name because a lot of people hate us. I work for BP Global PR and my goal is to get paid and shut down this damn T-shirt machine. Thanks, Brenna. Btw, are u pretty? Hope so.”

Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Earlier this year we simplified the process for monetizing your blog by adding a “Monetize” tab in the Blogger app. We started with AdSense, which allows you to add contextual advertising to your pages; more recently we added AdSense for Feeds to help you generate revenue from the distribution of your blog via RSS and Atom. Today we launched a third option: direct integration with Amazon Associates to search Amazon’s product catalog and add links to products that earn you commissions when your readers buy products you recommend.


With this feature, you can search Amazon directly from the Blogger editor and add pictures and links to Amazon products right into your posts. Your readers will earn you commissions whenever they buy the products you recommend, and if you don’t already have an Amazon Associates account, you can sign up for one for free without leaving Blogger.

If you’ve ever written a blog post about a book, recommended a gadget, or reviewed a toy you bought for your kids, you’ve likely gone through the process of drafting the post, opening up a separate window to go to find a site that sells the product, then going back to Blogger to paste the link to the product into the post editor.

Starting today, you can search the Amazon product catalog without leaving the Blogger interface and insert links to the products you find into your posts. Not only is the process of linking to products more efficient, but Amazon makes it easy for you to earn money whenever your readers actually buy the products you write about. This is known as an “affiliate program”, and it’s designed to let you recommend products you like to your audience — if they buy the product, you’ll earn a commission on that purchase. (For more on affiliate programs in general, here is a good overview at ProBlogger from this summer, and Darren’s “11 Lessons Learned” post about Amazon Associates is a good review of how to get the most out of the program.)

To get started, click on the Monetize tab for your blog and click “Amazon Associates”. Walk through the setup wizard, and add the Product Finder once you’re done.



Now for the fun part: when you are writing a post on Blogger, you’ll see an Amazon gadget to the right of your post editor (the “Product Finder”). You can search the Amazon product catalog from within Blogger — type in the name of the product you are writing about, and insert a link to the product, an image of the product, or an iframe containing the image, price details and a “buy it now” button. Every link that’s created contains your unique Associates ID, ensuring that Amazon will credit you for any purchases that result from readers clicking the link on your blog.



If you’re an existing Amazon Associate, completing this setup simply makes the Product Finder available on Blogger for you — you continue to earn the same referral rate from Amazon. New Associates receive the same referral rate from Amazon that they would have received if they signed up directly. If you’re not interested in earning a referral, you can still install the Product Finder: from the “Amazon Associates” page under the Monetize tab, click “I'll do this later — show me more Amazon options” and then click “Add the Product Finder” button.

A quick note about trust: affiliate programs work well when readers trust you. You should avoid promoting products simply because of the referral fee you might earn — readers may lose some of that trust if they sense your posts exist solely to make you money. You may also want to disclose to your readers that you will earn a commission on their purchase — some readers even prefer knowing that you benefit from their business.

There’s more information about this integration at Amazon.com, and the Amazon Associates blog has some more details. This integration is the result of months of collaboration between the engineers at both companies, and we’re very excited to share the results of this collaboration with you. Happy blogging!

Young Adults Are More Privacy-Conscious Online Than Ever [STUDY]

The Pew Internet & America Life Project is out with a new report finding that online users are taking a more active interest in reputation management.

Findings suggest that users increasingly change privacy settings, delete comments and untag themselves in photos, but overall the online population worries 7% less about how much information is available about them than it did in 2006.

2,253 American adults over the age of 18 were surveyed on their internet behaviors between August and September of last year, with Pew finding that 57% of adults have used search engines to find information about themselves online (up 10% from 2006), and 71% of social networking users 18 – 29 have changed their profile privacy settings.

According to Pew, the young adult demographic is the most privacy-conscious: 44% of 18 – 29 year-olds have made efforts to limit the personal information they share online, 47% of the same group have deleted comments on their profile and 41% have removed their name from photos they were tagged in. Plus, 28% of these same young adults say that they can “never” trust social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace (MySpace) and LinkedIn (LinkedIn).

By comparison, when looking at older demographics, the percentages for these same activities are much lower. Only 55% of social networking adults 50 – 64 have changed their default privacy settings, and only 20% of seniors 65 and older have actively limited the personal information they post online.

Pew attributes the rise in young adult reputation management to the increase in workplace policies surrounding social media sites. These findings are somewhat contradictory with a Consumer Reports study suggesting that many users don’t care about their Facebook (Facebook) privacy settings.

What does seem certain, though, is that young adults are becoming more aware about the information they post online, and the implications that content may have on their personal and professional lives.

Domino’s UK Rewards Foursquare Mayors with Free Pizza

Domino’s UK is starting a nationwide Foursquare promotion that rewards mayors with free pizza once a week, a deal similar to the one Starbucks announced last week. Those who merely check in on Foursquare will receive a free side dish for their patronage should they spend more than £10 (or around $14.50).

New Media Age reports that the UK specials follow a successful Domino’s pilot program that ran earlier in the year at select locations in the country.

What’s especially interesting about Domino’s UK FoursquareFoursquareFoursquare strategy is that although the pizza chain is widely popular in the region, there are no stores with dine-in restaurants.

It seems a tad out of the ordinary that an establishment that is primarily seen as a delivery service would reward patrons who visit physical brick-and-mortar outlets and check in on Foursquare. We can only presume that the strategy is to increase takeout orders and lower franchise costs associated with delivery.

Still, the promotion could easily help the corporation drum up more sales. On Foursquare, users receive notifications when their friends check in at venues. Pizza checkin notifications from friends could certainly work to convince hungry Foursquare users to order or pick up Domino’s pizza.

[img credit: Scott Smith Photography]

AT&T’s Plan for NYC Data Congestion: Free Wi-Fi

AT&T is rolling out a stopgap solution to its ongoing service woes in at least one major market: they hope to alleviate data congestion issues by blanketing New York City’s Times Square with free Wi-Fi.

Any current AT&T customers with 3G smartphones or mobile broadband cards, or who have AT&T as their high speed Internet (Internet) provider, will be able to hop on to what is essentially a giant hotspot being installed in the north central area of Times Square. Smartphone users should even automatically be switched over from 3G service and connected to the hotspot when they come within acceptable range.

For now it’s just a pilot project, but if all goes well the company has said it will be considering free Wi-Fi implementations in other congested major markets in the U.S. It’s an interesting solution that shows the carrier is more than well aware of the service issues faced by customers in crowded locations, but it does leave other parts of the city (and country) out of luck for now.

What do you think of the idea of alleviating cell bandwidth woes by providing free Wi-Fi? And would it be enough to prevent mass exodus if AT&T were to lose iPhone exclusivity?

[via Boy Genius Report]

Is the iPad Killing Netbooks? [STATS]

According to new data from consumer electronics company Retrevo, iPads might be putting a significant dent in netbook sales.

Tablets in general are newer, sexier and sleeker than netbooks, their hardworking if relatively old-school counterparts. When iPads were announced, many consumers put off their netbook purchase plans in order to try out and consider buying an iPad instead.

And for folks currently considering a smaller, portable computer, an overwhelming majority are leaning more toward iPads.



hat being said, laptops are also holding a steady lead in the portable computer market. In the past year and the current year, 65% of consumers who had to choose between a netbook and a laptop went for the latter in the end.



If you had to choose between a laptop, a netbook and an iPad, which way would you lean, and why? Do you think netbook sales will suffer further when non-Apple tablets are released?

Zombie' satellite prompts orbital waltz

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Galaxy-15 (Orbital Sciences) Galaxy-15 is slowly drifting eastwards

Two spacecraft are about to begin an unusual orbital dance above the Pacific Ocean to try to evade the interference from a third, failed satellite.

Control was lost of Intelsat's Galaxy-15 platform in April. It will not take commands from the ground and is in a drift towards neighbouring spacecraft.

The nearest, AMC-11, will now be eased out of its path, and some of its TV channels moved to a partner platform.

The pair's operator, SES World Skies, says customers should be unaffected.

The intricacy of the space choreography that is about to take place is thought to be unprecedented in the commercial telecommunications sector.

"We have to do slight manoeuvres with our spacecraft pretty regularly, but a manoeuvre of this nature and complexity - no, I'm not aware of anyone having done this before," said Alan Young, chief technology officer with SES World Skies.

"We need to make sure Americans can continue to watch their television. They love their TV and it's important," he told BBC News.
'Zombie' nickname

Galaxy-15 was launched in 2005 to re-distribute TV services to cable companies across North and Central America, and also to send navigation data to aeroplanes to improve the accuracy of their GPS receivers.

On 5 April, it experienced a major fault and its services were switched to a back-up spacecraft. Engineers have not yet established the cause, but damage from a solar storm is one possibility being investigated.

Although Intelsat cannot talk to Galaxy-15, its electronics payload remains fully functional, and it is capable of re-transmitting on full power any signal it receives.

This means that if Galaxy-15 were to get too close to other telecommunications spacecraft, it could start re-transmitting their signals and seriously interfering with their services.

This "dead-but-alive" condition has earned the Intelsat platform the unfortunate nick-name of "zombie-sat" in some quarters.

Normally positioned at 133 degrees West, and some 36,000km above the Pacific, the satellite is now drifting east into the slot occupied by AMC-11, a satellite operated by competitor SES World Skies.

To ensure its TV customers experience no loss or degradation of service, SES plans on Tuesday to initiate a drift in AMC-11 to match that of Galaxy-15. It has also already commanded a second satellite, SES-1, to come in behind the damaged platform.

Services will then be juggled between the two SES satellites until Galaxy-15 passes through the orbital slot and AMC-11 can return to its normal position and duties.

A graphic sequence from SES World Skies shows the intricacy of the space choreography that is needed

"We've moved customers on AMC-11 on to a very large uplink antenna," explained Mr Young.

"This means we can very finely discriminate between the two spacecraft so that we can direct all of the energy into AMC-11 and as little energy as possible into Galaxy-15. If you don't put anything into Galaxy-15, you won't get anything out."

Intelsat told BBC News its engineers would continue to try to regain control of Galaxy-15, whilst co-operating fully with other operators to minimise disruption.

Collisions with other satellites are highly unlikely. As it passes through other orbital slots, Galaxy-15 should still be separated from nearby spacecraft by many kilometres.

Ultimately, it is expected that the Intelsat platform will lose the ability to point its solar panels at the Sun and experience total power failure. This could take some months.

It should end its days in one of the gravity "sweetspots", or libration points, where orbital debris has a tendency to aggregate.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Yankee Stadium Bans iPads

According to Apple’s latest commercial, “iPad goes anywhere” — anywhere, that is, except for Yankee Stadium. Yahoo Sports confirmed with the stadium that the iPad falls under its “no laptops” security policy and patrons won’t be able to enter the ball field with one in their possession.

Say what? The TSA says that you don’t have to take an iPad out of its case to go through security, but Yankee Stadium says the device is a no-go? The discussion surrounding the ban was spurred by a message from Spacekatgal on the IGN Boards. Spacekatgal tried to bring her iPad in to the Yankee/Red Sox game, only to be turned away at the gate. Undeterred, she did re-enter the stadium with her iPad in her jacket, but the ban exists all the same.

While you can reasonably conceive why someone would want to bring an iPad — or any electronic device aside from a cellphone into a ball game for that matter — the outright ban of such a device strikes us as odd, especially given that Wi-Fi is available throughout the complex.

In any event, if you want to bring an iPad to Yankee Stadium this summer (assuming you’re sitting in the shade), you might want to make sure you’ve got a bag or windbreaker that can mask said device from the security guards. Or you could just leave the gadgets at home and watch the game.

What do you think of this security policy? Let us know in the comments.

Google’s PowerMeter Comes to Consumer Devices

Google’s PowerMeter will now be available to consumers on real-time energy monitoring devices form Current Cost, the largest global supplier of such displays.

Google’s (Google) PowerMeter helps you monitor how much electricity you use to help you save money and conserve energy at the same time. The company has been actively searching for device manufacturers for some time; Current Costs uses the PowerMeter API Google released in March to make their devices compatible with Google’s service.



The ENVI, pictured above, can monitor individual appliances as well as total energy consumption. It currently monitors only electricity, with gas and other forms of energy monitoring in development. Its LCD screen displays an environment’s energy consumption over a rolling 24-hour period as a bar graph. The ENVI can also calculate to the penny how much your energy use is costing you.

When connected to a computer, the monitor can stream up to seven years of historical data. With its PowerMeter integration, the data is viewable from any Internet (Internet)-connected device.



With Google’s expansion into the areas of energy production and consumption and their investments in green and clean energy, the company is building on its original mission to organize the world’s information to improve what we know about our own energy consumption.

What do you think about Google’s efforts in the green energy space?