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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.