Talk about crowdsourcing: a group of Stars Wars fans is trying to make an entire movie out of fan-generated versions of Star Wars scenes. The user-generated version of Star Wars: A New Hope, coordinated at Star Wars Uncut, is coming along nicely, with over 400 clips submitted so far.The project even has its own trailer, viewable below (we’ve included a few sample clips too). It’s not just a piece of extreme geekery for your weekend enjoyment – Star Wars Uncut is a prime example of how large scale crowdsourced projects can now be coordinated with relative ease, thanks to the web.[via io9]Star Wars: Uncut Trailerfrom Casey Pughon Vimeo.Star Wars Uncut – Scene 472from Jim Maloneon Vimeo.Star Wars Uncut – Scene 067from lewis shon Vimeo.Star Wars Uncut – Scene 372from Philip Freyon Vimeo.Reviews: Vimeo, io9Tags: Star Wars
David Pogue, the ever-entertaining New York Times technology columnist and former Broadway musical conductor, was at the Boston Book Festivaltoday talking ebooks and the future of reading. In a welcome diversion, however, Pogue broke into song with his tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs: “Don’t Cry For Me, Cupertino”.It’s an oldie but a goodie for Pogue fans, and ranks up there with his classic “iPhone: The Music Video” (below).“Don’t Cry For Me, Cupertino”BONUS: iPhone – The Music VideoTags: apple, cupertino, david pogue
With over 300 million users, Facebook is undeniably one of the best places to keep in touch with friends, and one of the reasons it’s so popular are its applications. Most of Facebook’s user-favorite features, like its massively popular photo sharing, video sharing, user groups, or events functionality, are powered by applications. These core apps come installed by default on every user’s profile and cannot be removed.But Facebook is also home to over 350,000 other applications created by thousands of third-party developers across the world. With so many apps, the Facebook Application Platform can be a little bit overwhelming to navigate and finding the best apps can be difficult. This guide will show you how to find, add, and manage Facebook applications.What Are Facebook Apps?Launched in May 2007, the Facebook Platform allows outside developers to create applications — such as games or other programs — that run inside of Facebook and have access to your social data (if you grant such access). The platform has become of the most popular developer ecosystemson the Internet.For the purposes of this article, we’re going to define a Facebook app as any application that runs inside of Facebook itself and can be found in the official App Directory. We’re also going to focus on consumer apps, rather than those made to run on Facebook Fan Pages.The App DirectoryThe main place to find Facebook applications is the site’s official App Directory. You can access the directory by click on the “Applications” button in the lower left hand corner of the Facebook screen (on the bottom navigation bar), and then clicking on the “Browse More Applications” link.The directory also lists external web sites that connect with Facebook, mobile and desktop applications, and “prototypes,” which are new features and applications that Facebook is testing out. For this guide, we’re concerned mainly with the apps found “On Facebook.”The App Directory lists every application available to you on the social network and offers five ways to find new applications:Featured by Facebook – At the very top of the the App Directory page, the first thing you see are featured applications. These apps, shown two at a time with left and right arrows to page through the entire list, are apps that the Facebook staff have selected as particularly noteworthy, well-made, or unique. All of these apps are “Verified” (more on that later).Applications You May Like – The second section on the page, is a list of applications that Facebook thinks you may enjoy. This list is generated based on which apps are popular with your friends, which apps are popular with all of Facebook, and which apps closely resemble the type of application you have already installed.Search – If you’re looking for an app that accomplishes a specific task, then the search function (found in the upper left-hand corner of the App Directory page) is the place to start. Browse – If you’re less sure about what you’re looking for, you can browse the App Directory in the categories of: Business, Education, Entertainment, Friends & Family, Games, Just for Fun, Lifestyle, Sports, and Utilities. Each category page will also have featured and suggested applications.Recent Activity From Friends – Finally, on the bottom of the page, is a familiar news feed of recent app-related activity from your friends. This section gives you a birds eye view of the types of apps your friends are interacting with.When you search or browse for applications you’ll see a brief overview of each app, as well as a star rating out of five, the number of monthly active users, and the number of your friends that use that application. You also may see a little green check mark next to some apps. The check mark signifies that that application is a “Verified App.” Verified applications have passed through a rigorous review process by Facebook and are deemed safe and trustworthy by the site.Clicking on the application will bring you to its App Page, which closely resembles a Facebook Fan Page. The page will give you a lot more information about the application, including which of your friends are using it, reviews and discussions from users, as well as news and any other information about the app from its developer.The App Directory is really the best way to find new applications on Facebook, but you should also pay attention to your Facebook news feed. That section will sometimes include updates from popular apps that your friends are adding and interacting with. Further, keep an eye out for app suggestions and invitations from your friends.Installing an AppOnce you’ve selected an application to add, navigate to its App Page. From there you can add the application, block it (so that you won’t get updates about it in your news feed if friends are using it), become a fan of the app, or add it to your favorites.To add an app, click on the “Go to Application” button beneath the app’s logo. If you have the app installed already, clicking this button will bring you to the actual app. If you don’t have it installed, you’ll be directed to a page asking you to grant the application permission to access your Facebook data. Some apps may have additional steps as part of installation or set up, such as creating a character for games.Managing AppsOnce you have apps installed, it’s a good idea to go to the Application Settings page to tweak the privacy and notification settings of your apps, or to remove an application. To access this page, click on the “Applications” button on bottom left of the Facebook screen, and then click on the “Edit Applications” link.By default, the Application Settings page will list your most recently used apps. You can change this by clicking on the “Show” drop down menu and choosing which apps to display. To see a list of all applications you have installed, choose “Authorized.”Once you have found the application you wish to manage, you’ll see three links to the right side of that application’s name: Edit Settings, Profile, and an X. “Profile” will bring you to the app’s Application Page (where you can leave a review or rating or discuss issues you are having with the application with the developers). “Edit Settings” will pop up a settings dialog box that has three tabs allowing you to control how the app interacts with your Facebook profile.Profile – On this tab you’ll find privacy settings about who can see this app, as well as the ability to add or remove a profile Box or Tab for the application, if available.Bookmark – This controls whether a link to the app appears in the “Applications” menu on the bottom navigation bar.Additional Permissions – This tab allows you to control what other types of things the app can do, such as notify you about new activity, or post stories to your news feed or wall.To remove an application, simply click on the “X” link. Facebook will ask you to confirm your decision and will allow you to optionally rate the app. You’ll notice that some applications cannot be deleted; these are official Facebook apps that are vital to the core functionality of the site. While you can’t delete these apps, you can effectively disable them by denying all of their permissions and setting up strict privacy rules.More Facebook Resources from Mashable- HOW TO: Integrate Facebook With Your Blog- HOW TO: Organize an Event on Facebook- HOW TO: Manage a Facebook Group- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook- HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional NetworkingReviews: FacebookTags: apps, facebook, facebook apps, how to
Amazon’s Kindle software isn’t going to be limited to the e-reading device: following Amazon’s announcement at the Windows 7 launch that it has released a version of the Kindle Reader software for PCs (”Kindle for PC“), the company has also revealed that it’s building a Mac version of the software. Neither version requires that you own a Kindle in order to download books. An Amazon spokesperson in contact with Fast Companytold the magazine: “Yes, we are working on a Kindle app for Mac.”The move is a smart one: having the Kindle software available on all PCs and Macs radically extends the range of devices that can connect to the Kindle Store. But whether this is a move towards being more open is debatable: for now, anyone switching from a Kindle to another e-reader cannot move their books over.Reviews: KIndleTags: kindle mac
That was fast: CNN.comwas due for a redesign Monday, but it would appear the new site has already started to roll out. Not only does the homepage have a fresh design today, but CNN has posted a video overviewof the new site. As we wrote of the changes this week:Besides the obvious cosmetic changes to the homepage, which will split up content into three prominent sections, CNN is also integrating much more video content, and enabling personalization of content, which means you’ll be able to organize stories by correspondent, subject, or keyword.What do you think? Is the new CNN a step forward, or does it miss the mark? Let us know in the comments.Disclosure: I’ll be starting a new column at CNN next week.Tags: cnn
It’s hard to ignore the fact that Twitter has been overtaken this weekend with a new meme: #oneletteroffmovies takes the titles of popular flicks and changes just one letter for comedy effect. Some attempts are hilarious, some vulgar and some just plain unfunny. Here we’ve picked more than 20 of our favorites for your weekend amusement: please post your favorites in the comments.Tags: twitter
In the span of one up-and-down week, Twitter lost one of their most influential teen Twitterers in Miley Cyrus, and then almost immediately found new life in the tween market with the launch of the Twilight Twitter account. It may sound silly, but these 140 character pop culture dramas do matter to Twitter, because their US traffic is flat, and that’s a problem.At the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this week Twitter’s Co-Founder and CEO, Evan Williams, openly admitted that traffic has stalledin the US. He then went on to say that new features should help solve the problem. Likely not coincidentally, the very next day Twitter announced search deals with both Bingand Google. Those deals, coupled with the new Twitter Lists, and the roll out of location-aware tweets, make up what we deem to be Twitter’s trifecta traffic strategy. And we think it will work; here’s why.1. SearchBoth Bing and Google have tapped Twitter to serve up real-time tweets as a part of search results pages. Bing’s product is already live, and while it’s a separate web page from the Bing.com homepage, it’s a really impressive web and Twitter search mashup, with constantly refreshing tweets.Soon Google too will include tweets as a part of the search experience, but their plan is to include tweets within the standard Google search experience. According to their blog post on the news, “the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”Twitter’s inclusion in search results is likely to be the biggest driver of new and repeat traffic, period. Right now Twitter search tools are incredibly valuable, but they don’t expose mainstream audiences to Twitter. Google is the epitome of mainstream. It’s the first place most online users go when they want to find something on the web, it’s where they go to find products and breaking news stories, and now this mainstream audience will be exposed to real-time tweets matching their queries, which means a likely flood of new traffic and users for Twitter.2. ListsTwitter is not your average social network. One study shows that the average Twitter user is a femalein her late teens. She follows 20 – 50 people, with the same number of Twitterers following her back. Another study found that 10% of active users account for 90% of all tweets. And yet another study concluded that 24% of tweets are created by bots. Clearly, Twitter has an engagement and identity crisis on their hands.Thus far, Twitter would encourage new user participation via a hand picked list of recommended Twitterers (often referred to as the Suggested User List or SUL). Now, however, Twitter is ready to kill the SUL and provide something of even greater value: user-curated Twitter Lists.As we’ve detailed before, Twitter Lists, which are live for some users, enable users to create and name their own curated lists of Twitterers. Your lists are public by default, which means that anyone can check out who you’ve added to your topical lists, and the feature also makes it easy to see which lists you’ve been added to by other Twitter users. As our Editor in Chief, Adam Ostrow wrote, “This is essentially taking the whole concept of “Follow Friday” and building a killer feature around it.”As any addicted Twitterer knows, the key to Twitter becoming an integral part of your online life is reaching a threshold where you’re consuming interesting tweets and getting responses from others who read your 140 character opinions. Without that push and pull exchange, Twitter is absolutely meaningless.That’s why Twitter Lists will prove to be the key engagement tool. Lists will ensure that new users can immediately find other Twitterers who appeal to their tastes. Right now, seasoned Twitter users can create communities of their own, so engagement isn’t a problem, but Lists will brings the crafted community element to new users who may be initially trepidatious or confused about the point of Twitter.3. Location Aware TweetsTwitter has already started the application implementation process for attaching latitude and longitude to tweets, and has deployed the feature internally for testing. Ultimately, when it’s rolled out to the entire Twittersphere, all tweets from those who have opted-in will be location-aware. This could be huge for Twitter’s user retention issues, and also help with tackling traffic plateaus.If you’re using a GPS-enabled phone or browser-plugin, you can already send and receive location-aware tweets through third-party apps and leverage an around-me function to see who’s tweeting nearby. Once the lat/long features become ubiquitous, however, the value of location-aware tweets increases exponentially. The next time you’re in a new city and you launch Twitter, you could potentially see tweets from people in the same building, on the same block, or dining at the same restaurant, let alone just in the same city.With the right application or filter, location-aware tweets could be the secret sauce that helps brand new users really understand what Twitter is about and make it relevant to their offline lives. Just knowing there are thousands of Twitterers within a few mile radius of your present location may not mean anything, but being able to have a conversation on Twitter with someone who’s at the same movie as you could mean the difference between being a Twitter lover or a Twitter quitter.More Twitter resources from Mashable:- 6 Incredible Twitter Powered Art Projects- HOW TO: Do Good on Twitter- Top 5 Twitter Trends to Watch Right Now- 6 Gorgeous Twitter Visualizations- 10 Ways to Find People on TwitterImage courtesy of iStockphoto, Zemdega.Reviews: Bing, Google, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: growth, twitter
Your votes have been counted, and the winner of the Shine A Lightprogram is Sacred Winds Communications, a telecommunications company bringing phone and internet service to the Navajo people in Albequerque, New Mexico. American Express and NBC Universal are proud to support small businesses, which are the driving force behind growth and innovation in the American economy. They partnered to create the Shine A Light program to honor standout small businesses everywhere. Thanks to your votes, Sacred Winds Communications will receive $100,000 in grant and marketing support from American Express.American Express and NBC Universal are thrilled to congratulate all three finalist business owners and all the hard-working small businesses that were nominated.Tune in on Sunday morning to see the winner on the “Your Business” show on MSNBC!(This post is brought to you by American Express. For more information on sponsored posts please read here.) Tags: Sponsored Post
It’s Friday night, and that means another Web Faceoffis going into the books. For the last few weeks, we’ve placed popular web services in the ring and asked all of you to choose the victor. In our most recent faceoff, Facebook defeated Twitterby a few hundred votes.The results of this week’s faceoff though were remarkably different. On Monday we asked all of you to vote between Wordpress and Typepadin order to figure out which blogging platform should reign supreme. The fight wasn’t even close, though.3,102 votes were cast, and with 87% of vote, Wordpress destroyed Typepad. Wordpress garnered 2,714 votes compared to Typepad’s mere 267 ballots (9%). 121 of you decided to call it a tie.Check back again Monday night for the next edition of the Web Faceoff. We’re going to pit two of the web’s heavyweights in a bout, so don’t miss it.Who would win in a fight: Wordpress or Typepad?(trends)Web Faceoff: Overall ResultsWeek 1:- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)Week 2:- Tumblr vs. Posterous- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)Week 3:- Pandora vs. Last.fm- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)Week 4:- Twitter vs. Facebook- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)Week 5:- Wordpress vs. Typepad- WINNER: Wordpress:, 2714 (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 121 votes)Reviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, TypePad, WordPressTags: poll, typepad, web faceoff, Wordpress
Black Friday: it’s the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving and it’s an extremely important day for both retailers and shoppers. In the hopes of turning a profit for the year, retailers often offer deep discounts on Black Friday to entice holiday shoppers.Of course, given how great the deals tend to be, there’s always consumer demand to know what those discounts will be ahead of time. There are even multiple websites dedicated just to Black Friday sale predictions and leaked advertising content. This year is no different with a few of those sites getting a leaked version of OfficeMax’s doorbuster deals for Black Friday.According to Reuters, Black Friday ads for 2009 have not only been leaked to the web, but they’ve already been pulled due to formal Cease and Desist orders. At the center of all the ruckus is OfficeMax, who’s Black Friday ad was posted to the web on several different sites on October 21, 2009, and even Gizmodopicked up the story.There was some speculation that the print ad circulating on the web was an early version or a fake due to misspellings, but since most parties have since received Cease and Desist orders from OfficeMax, and have consequently removed the advertised deals (though Gizmodo’s postis still up, with a complete listing of discounted prices), we’re inclined to believe that the advert in question is legitimate.If you’re looking to get a first look at Black Friday steals, we suggest you do so quickly, as this is clearly going to be a recurring trend up until Thanksgiving. Still, we think this is probably the first of several Black Friday Ad leaks you’ll see this year.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sculpies.Reviews: iStockphotoTags: black friday, black friday ads 2009
And the wacky promotional campaigns for Windows 7 continue. If you had an officially sanctioned Windows 7 partyin Japan, perhaps you had it catered with Burger King’s Windows 7 Whoppermonstrosity.Intrepid gaming blogger CheapyD braved a trip to a Tokyo BKto try the 7-layer beef patty contraption to bring us the footage of this 5-inch stack of meat. We’re pretty sure our cholesterol count increased just from watching the vid; check it out below.[via Gizmodo]Tags: burger king, MARKETING, microsoft, video, Windows 7
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: Lu.lyQuick Pitch: Lu.ly brings users’ Facebook and Twitter stream into browsers in real-time.Genius Idea: Lu.ly is a browser extension for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari (Safari currently in alpha) that lets you see your friends Twitter and Facebook status updates in real-time via scrolling text within the Lu.ly toolbar.Lu.ly also lets you share web pages on Twitter or Facebook (and automatically shortens the URLs), send direct messages, @replies and RTs.There are a lot of Twitter add-ons for Firefoxbut Lu.ly is one of the first that offers support across browsers. Plus, the ability to see Facebook and Twitter updates in one space is really nice.Lu.ly scrolls new status messages and tweets into your window as they appear. You can click backwards and forwards through your timeline and reply or send a direct message to the user from the toolbar. You can also click on links from tweets or on a user’s username and a new tab will open with that link or the user’s Twitter page. What we really like about Lu.ly, though, is the ability to use the search bar to search Twitter. Although there are other toolbar plugins that also show Twitter updates, Lu.ly is especially unobtrusive and really doesn’t distract you from what you are doing. In addition, if you want to turn off updates, you can just click on the service button for Facebook or Twitter and log-out.We like seeing useful toolbar plugins, especially when they are supported across browsers. Lu.ly’s streamlining of Facebook and Twitter in the browser definitely falls into that category.Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”Reviews: Facebook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, PHP, Safari, TwitterTags: facebook, firefox plugin, lu.ly, toolbar, twitter
Microsoft has dominated the social buzz this week. They made waves when they inked a search deal with Twitter, but the story that has dominated the news this week has to be the highly anticipated launch of Windows 7. The newest version of Microsoft’s operating version promised to deliver speed, security, and usability upgrades that Windows Vista lacked. But did Microsoft succeed in erasing Vista’s dark shadow? Mashable Founder Pete Cashmore was on CNN Liveto discuss that very issue.On the “Blogger’s Bunch” segment, Pete and others chatted about not only the impact of Windows 7, but debated whether the operating system wars are dead due to the rise of web apps and the browser. In addition, they analyzed recent chatter about Hulu potentially charging for shows in 2010. You can watch the full debate on Windows 7 and Hulu in the CNN video below:Embedded video from CNN VideoReviews: Hulu, Windows VistaTags: cnn, microsoft, pete cashmore, Windows 7
Correction: The real-time update only affects the Loopt Mix iPhone app for now—One of the very first players in the geolocation space was Loopt. It lets users find out what is going on around them and what their friends are doing nearby. Earlier this week Looptlaunched Loopt Mix for the iPhone, an app that lets you meet new people in your area by seeing who on Loopt is in the area and browsing their profiles.Today, they are adding a new feature to the Mix app: a real-time activity stream of what is going on around you. This has been one of Loopt’s most-requested features (in fact, they told us that it would have been implemented sooner if the technology had been easier).This is how it works: a bar pops up at the top of the app and you get a push notification and see photos when someone near you launches their app. This means you can see who is in the app nearby right now. This could be incredibly helpful if you’re looking to find people in Loopt nearby or you just want to chat. In addition, the real-time bar also shows status messages.The feature should be live within the hour and it opens up a really compelling component to the geolocation space.What do you think of the convergence between geolocation and realtime? Let us know in the comments.Tags: geolocation, iphone, loopt, loopt mix, real-time
