Comics lovers, rejoice (to a varying degree, depending on where you live)! Comixology, the creator of free comic reader for the iPhone, Comics, have added a bunch of Marvel titles to the library available for in-app purchase. The comics cost $2 each; the 71 currently available titles include the Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Marvel Zombies, X-23 and X-Men Age of Apocalypse. Unfortunately, as is so often the case due to copyright restrictions, all of these are only available in the US. The folks at Comixology wrote only a short postabout the addition to their catalog, which also includes comics by publishers such as Arcana, Asylum Press, Evil Twin Comics, Red 5 and Studio 407, so it’s hard to say when (if ever) the US-only limit will be lifted and whether any additional Marvel titles are coming. Tags: comics, iphone, Marvel
Picture this: you’ve been waiting for a popular product that’s been available in most other parts of the world for two years. When it finally arrives, it lacks an important feature. Would you buy it, or would you buy the same thing, cheaper, with this feature included, on the black market?This is the problem China’s Unicom is now facing, as the iPhones sold in that country lack WiFi. This was known for some time now, but, starting today, iPhones are coming to Chinese stores, and the folks at Unicom probably feal uneasy. Yes, you can live without WiFi. But it’s an important feature, and paying 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the iPhone might be too much for the Chinese who can buy the regular 3GS with WiFi on the black market for about $835. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the iPhone is manufactured in China. Finally, add to that the cost of connecting to the net – with the WiFi you can at least sometimes do it for free – and you might get a lot of very unsatisfied customers. Luckily for the Chinese users (and Unicom), this might be just a temporary problem. WiFi was temporarily banned in China, where an alternative, called WAPI, is pushed by the government. WAPI stands for WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure, and it is the controversial Chinese National Standard for Wireless LAN. It caused a US-China Trade Dispute, and it was rejected by ISO (it has recently been resubmitted for approval). However, the WiFi ban was lifted soon after the production began, and the next batch of iPhones that come to the market might actually have the functionality enabled. A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, is an optimist. “We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year,” he said. That’s all fine and dandy, but knowing that a non-crippled version is coming to the market soon, who will buy the iPhones that are in stores now?Tags: china, iphone, wifi
For the last few months, we’ve been watching the progress Epix, a joint venture between Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM studios to create a new web destination and sister TV channel for all of their movies. The project has been compared to Hulu, the web television joint venture between News Corp (FOX), General Electric (NBC), and Disney (ABC).The Epix project, while similar to Hulu in many ways, is different in one big way: only those with access to the Epix TV channel can access EpixHD.com. Instead of being ad-supported, it is carrier-supported. Now finally, after months of testing, Epix and EpixHD.com are launching to Verizon FiOS customers. But even if you’re not a Verizon customer, Epix is making sure that everyone can get access, at least for a short while.At 8:00 PM on October 30th, FiOS customers will find that channel 395 (895 for HD) will begin airing movies from the libraries of the three partner studios, starting with Ironman, Cloverfield, and a stream of the Madonna Sticky & Sweet Tour. At the same time, they will receive access to EpixHD.com’s library of movies, which rotates based on what’s airing on the TV channel.This is all great news for Verizon customers, but where does that leave the vast majority of us who are not FiOS subscribers? While EpixHD isn’t open to all (yet – we’re still hoping), it is opening up to everyone for the next 72 hoursto those who request an invite code. However, the first 200 Mashable readers to retweet this post with the hashtag #EpixExperience and follow @EpixHDwill be sent 30 day invites to EpixHD.com via direct message.EpixHD still has a ways to go: its movie library is incomplete and a lack of an option – even a paid one – for non-Verizon customers holds it back. However, the movie studios seem to have the right idea for digital distribution and are heading in the right direction.Reviews: Hulu, MashableTags: Epix, EpixHD, hulu, invites
We’ve already covered how viral the chat optionson live video services like Ustream, Justin.tv, and Tinychat can be. By signing into these services with your Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace credentials and then having your messages broadcast as status updates, more users become aware of the video feed and its audience can grow exponentially.Ustream just taken this concept to another level by launching what it calls Social Stream. The new feature allows you to sign-in to all three networks simultaneously, plus AIM, and have each chat message distributed to all of them. Further, the chat room will contain messages streaming in from all four platforms.This means that if you’re watching Ochocinco or Soulja Boy on Ustream, now, you can have your chat messages show up on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and AIM. Thus, there’s potential for 4x the viralness of your typical live video with chat. It should be another big win for Ustream, who has seen its audience grow significantlyin the past year as it taps into the growth of other social media sites.Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, aim, ustreamTags: live video, social media, ustream, video
Back in March, Facebook won an injunctionagainst three spammers who sent unwanted messages and made abusive wall posts on the site. The temporary restraining order placed criminal consequences on their continuing actions, but the legal battle wasn’t over just yet.Today Facebook reportedthey’ve been awarded $711 million in damages by a San Jose, CA court against Sanford Wallace, the notorious “Spam King” that MySpace also successfully went afterlast year to the tune of a $234 million judgment.Seven hundred eleven million dollars is a lot of dough. But amazingly, it’s not the highest judgment levied under the CAN-SPAM Act, a piece of legislation that contains tough penalties for violations surrounding commercial email and message sending. That honor also belongs to Facebook, who in November of 2008 won an $873 million victory against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital.More than being about the monetary figure though, especially considering the difficulty of actually extracting the cash from the defendants, is the deterrent effect these judgments will hopefully have on future would-be spammers. Facebook implores its users to help stop the scourge by using the “Report This” links throughout the site when you spot the evil stuff.What do you think about the ruling and the effects it might have on other spammers?Reviews: FacebookTags: facebook, lawsuits, spam
Race is still a sensitive topic in much of the world. And while most of us may like to think of ourselves as not being biased, a test designed by Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington looks to reveal what we might feel subconsciously. It’s called “Project Implicit” and it’s an online test that takes about 10 minutes to complete (I just finished it). According to the site, the goal is to “examine thoughts and feelings that exist either outside of conscious awareness or outside of conscious control.”The test starts by asking you about your race, and any biases that you may possess – as a Caucasian male, it asked me about my feelings and preferences towards white and black people. Then, you’re shown a series of pictures of white/black faces and good/bad words. You need to then associate those pictures and words with white/black and good/bad on the right and left of your screen.As the test progresses, words will get swapped around, for example, putting “White People” and “Bad Words” on the same side and vice versa. The idea is that if this becomes tricky, it might mean you have a preference for one race or the other. Personally, I felt this seemed like a bit of an exercise in hand-eye coordination more than anything else, but I can see what the researchers are getting at. At the end, you get some interesting perspective on what preferences you might have based on how you answered the questions. I’m not convinced the results aren’t going to be quite similar for most everyone that takes it, but if you’re bold enough to share your own findings, let us know how it goes in the comments.Tags: race, research
As you may know, we’ve been conducting our weekly Lunchtime Polland getting Mashable readers’ opinions on the topic of the week. This week we pitted six smartphone platforms against each other in our Smartphone Smackdownand asked you lovely folks to cast your votes.We put RIM’s BlackBerry, Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, the Symbian OS, Palm’s webOS and Windows Mobile head-to-head and sat back to watch the votes fly. At the end of the day, all had a respectable showing on the scoreboard, but there can be only one winner…… and in this case the victor happens to be Apple’s iconic iPhone — the platform that kicked off the mobile app store craze that other mobile players have followed. With a commanding 43% of the vote, the iPhone was the champion, although Google’s open source Android platform was not too far behind at 29%. RIM and Palm both took 9% of the tally, with Symbian and Windows Mobile bringing up the rear at 5% each.What do you think of the results? And if you missed your chance to cast your vote, be sure to let us know your smartphone platform of choice in the comments!Header image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotographyReviews: Android, Google, iStockphotoTags: android, apple, blackberry, Google, iphone, Mobile 2.0, palm, poll, RIM, smartphones, Symbian, webOS, windows mobile
At Mashable, we constantly hear about innovative and unique advertising campaigns. Some of them have inspired us (like the #BeatCancercampaign) while others just made us scratch our heads (like the Bingathon). However, a new method of advertising we came across today just has us dumbfounded.A German book company, Eichborn, decided to think beyond the booth at the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair. The advertising stunt they concocted though is something that, uh, flies in the face of convention.Eichborn’s “smallest commercial gimmick in the world” was simple: attach physical banner ads to actual flies. Yes, they somehow tied small red Eichborn banner ads to flies and let them loose in the Frankfurt Book Fair. The result was flying advertising that nobody could miss.While we’re sure that the flies didn’t appreciate the extra weight, you have to give it to Eichborn for its creativity. Still, we’re hope fly ads don’t become a trend; we don’t attend conferences just to be pestered by branded insects. The amazing video is below:[via Wired]Tags: banner ad, books, eichborn, flies, video
The Motorola Droidis certainly one of the most discussed new non-Apple smartphones to come out in some time. It launches November 6thon Verizon, but you can already pre-order it from Best Buy.Is it worth switching to if you already carry an iPhone or another device? To provide some guidance, BillShrink has produceda detailed chart looking at Droid, iPhone, Palm Pre, and MyTouch 3G.Going by the chart, there doesn’t appear to be much Droid is lacking – other than the 93,200 apps (100,000+ by recent estimates) that the iPhone’s app store offers. You also get Verizon’s network as opposed to AT&T (a fact you’ll no doubt be reminded of in advertising). As you can see, cost of ownership over 24 months works out exactly the same for both products, while Pre and MyTouch are more affordable. In all, it certainly seems like the Droid will add an interesting new twist the smartphone debate, which to-date has primarily involved iPhone and BlackBerry. How do you think Droid stacks up? Share your thoughts in the comments.[via GigaOm]Disclosure: Motorola is a sponsor of Mashable’s Open Web AwardsTags: iphone, Mobile 2.0, motorola droid, smartphones
Bernard Moonis Managing Director of the Lunsford Group, which is a private holding company consisting of entities in technology, media, research & consulting, health care, and real estate. He blogs at Silicon Moon.There is a lot of hype surrounding the real-time web, and much of the feeding frenzy reminds me of the RSS space four years ago — though there is a lot of potential, there is also a lot of noise. How do you navigate through it all and which developments should you be paying attention to? What are the emerging trends for companies and entrepreneurs to watch for? Here are four real-time web trends that I’m tracking. Please share in the comments any other real-time trends that you think will be big.1. Real-Time Collaboration is RipeningReal-time will play a major role in the future of online collaboration. We’ve seen all the hype around the new Google Waveplatform, as well as the growth of Twitterand Twitter-like communications (such as Facebookstatus). On the business side, SAP’s Gravity, a prototype of real-time collaborative business process modeling within Google Wave, is a good example. But I see this as the tip of the iceberg. Companies that are more efficient have an advantage whether within their walls or with their customers. Imagine being able to make real-time changes with your colleague in another city and graphic designer at your local Kinko’s to finalize a presentation and print it hours before your meeting. Or working with your manufacturer in Nanjing, China on changes to your new BBQ grill design and seeing if it’s possible in real-time. Or game developers in Korea and Dallas story boarding a new video game concept in a new real-time game development application. There is massive potential for real-time collaboration across almost every discipline, and I believe there are an incredible amount of exciting possibilities here. 2. Real-Time Analytics Will Be HotThe reality right now is that there isn’t enough critical mass of real-time data in most areas, but when those tipping points are met, watch this space. This is not just about Twitter feeds, but shopping information, individual health information, movie and show reviews, and many other treasure troves of data. Waze, which is a crowdsourced mobile map and traffic information service, is effective in Israel where it initially launched and needed just 0.5% of the population to become a reliable service. It recently launched in the United States, and will be challenged to reach critical mass in its target markets for its product to be useful to end users, who provide the real-time data that is uses. While Waze is not necessarily an analytics application — it’s a real-time information app (though it does analyze the data it receives in real-time to expose traffic patterns, accidents, and speed traps to users), it is an example of necessary tipping points for analytics to be relevant. Once you have these real-time data sets, so many fields will be able to become more accurate and relevant in their decision-making processes. What type of real-time data would you like access to? 3. Real-Time Search is Looking UpWith Microsoft’s and Google’s recent forayinto real-time search, it would be easy to assume that real-time search startups are dead in the water. But I believe there are many opportunities for startups in the space, especially as public life streaming activities increase (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, IMs) and real-time search moves to vertical categories. Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re wondering if you should you go see Depeche Mode in concert or if they are too old now to put on a good show. What are people saying about their concert from the evening before? If your search allows you to narrow your focus by date to make sure you’re getting info only from last night’s show, exclude all messages under 10 characters to filter out irrelevant information, and those from their home area of Basildon, Essex UK to rule out biases, you should be able to get a clear picture of what people think. Now that’s information I can really use. For the larger players, it will be a golden opportunity to capitalize on more event-driven ad dollars. Imagine the euphoria during the World Cup or Superbowl and all the tweets and messages surrounding these events. Now imagine the highly targeted ads that could be displayed to these users selling them championship videos or t-shirts at the height of their emotions. I’m still amazed by the uncanny targeting of ads within Gmail, so it should be a short step for Google and other major advertising companies to be able to implement targeted ads across real-time streams. 4. Real-Time Ecommerce is ComingGerman company Apnotiindexes real-time pricing for consumers in the U.S and Germany. The primary benefit of their service is to help consumers find dramatic price fluctuations and to take advantage of pricing errors on various ecommerce sites. But this is really quite elementary compared to what is possible. For true real-time pricing to occur, there needs to be real-time inventory management, which will depend on major infrastructure companies such as EDS or IBM to build out those systems. As retailers move closer to real-time inventory management, they’ll improve on their pricing and sales efforts since they will be able to create more efficient price equilibrium adjustments. For consumer facing applications, real-time pricing can be a competitive advantage for perishable goods. For example, the grocer with fresher fruit can theoretically charge or sell more by providing real-time freshness data. With the growth of smart energy grids, real-time pricing of solar energy and electric power provides tremendous cost-savings for consumers. Generally within ecommerce, real-time inventory information that is accessible through the web is valuable for both the consumer and company. What are the other areas of high impact? Travel? Off-season luxury goods? Event tickets? Let us know in the comments below.There are so many areas that will be impacted by real-time technologies and practices in the coming years. I’ve highlighted these four trend areas, but where else do you see the real-time web changing our companies and lives?More social media resources from Mashable:- 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates- 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business- 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business- 6 Incredible Twitter Powered Art Projects- 5 Ways Social Media is Changing Our Daily LivesImage courtesy of iStockphoto, sloboReviews: Facebook, Gmail, Google, Google Wave, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: List, Lists, real-time, trends
Earlier this year, Facebook was hammeredfor changes it made to its Terms of Service. The result was an uproar that eventually led to the Facebook Democracy, an initiative by Facebook to let users vote and comment on its governing documents. The result was positive, but that didn’t end the criticism. Most recently, the Canadian government forced Facebook to make changesin order to comply with the country’s privacy laws. Now Facebook is looking to close that chapter with a brand new Privacy Policythat users will have the chance to comment and vote upon.Facebook VP of Communication and Public Policy Elliot Schrage made the announcement on the Facebook blog early this afternoon. The social networking company has rewritten its policy in “plain language” and has “included numerous examples to help illustrate [their] points.” The new policy explains that you have the right to delete or change your profile information, that you can delete your entire account from Facebook’s servers, that there are limitations to removal, and that backup copies can exist for up to 90 days after deleting. It also goes into new detail over advertising on Facebook.Facebook users who are interested in the document can comment on it on the Facebook Site Governancepage. The commenting period lasts until 12pm PT on November 5th. After that, the company will take its next steps – likely another update to the policy and placing it to a community vote.Let’s be clear: Facebook is making these changes to appease Canada. Still, we commend Facebook for its democracy movement. Allowing users to provide input and vote on changes gives users new and necessary control over a website that’s larger in population than almost every country in the world.Reviews: FacebookTags: Canada, facebook, Facebook Democracy, privacy
As we notedlast night, Twitter has significantly expanded the rollout of its new “Lists” featureover the past day or so. The feature looks to accomplish a couple different goals: for one, it lets you organize the people you follow into groups – for example “co-workers,” “social media experts,” or “celebrities” – serving as a filter of sorts for tracking updates. This is similar to the functionality already available in clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic.Additionally, and perhaps more exciting, it’s a way to discover new users by exploring the lists that others have created. However, the only way to find these currently is going profile-by-profile or looking at the lists you’re already on (assuming you have the feature enabled).In the future, perhaps Twitter will build a “most followed lists” feature or something similar to help you find Lists, but for now, we figured we’d open up our comment section to let you share the lists you’ve created and discover those created by other Mashable readers. So, drop some links to your lists along with a brief description in the comments! One thing to note – if you don’t yet have lists enabled, you won’t be able to see any of them (sorry), but we’ll continue to reference this post in the future. PS – You can follow the Mashable staff list here. Reviews: Mashable, Seesmic, TweetDeck, TwitterTags: twitter
The search engine market was once a fairly predictable and intriguing place where the mantra was “Google-and-everybody-else.” There was innovation, but nobody really believed that Microsoft, Yahoo, or any other startup could pose a threat to Google’s search empire. The entire search market was thrown onto a roller coaster though when Microsoft revealed Bingto the world. The new search engine promised to not only be a remake of Microsoft Live Search, but a completely new take on how search should be implemented. The Redmond-based company’s war against Google has steadily gained momentum: an intense promotional campaign, the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal, and most recently, a Twitter search deal. Now there’s speculation that Microsoft may make another blockbuster move by buying out the #4 player in search, Ask.com.According to Reuters, Ask.com’s owner, InterActiveCorp (IAC), is leaning towards selling its struggling search engine. In a conference call yesterday, IAC CEO Barry Diller stated that it is open to “consolidating” its search market share, but that it would not likely be the consolidator.So who would be the “consolidator?” The answer is almost certainly Microsoft, who has shown a willingness to pay for search market share and will not face the same regulatory questions that Google would face if it were to make a run for Ask.com’s roughly 4% of the search market.Building a Search Competitor, Deal by DealThe speculation put forth by Reuters and many analysts is solid. Bing, even with after the Yahoo search deal, still owns less than 30% of the search market. Amassing every asset it can in its challenge to Google’s supremacy is only logical. There’s a reason Microsoft has been striking deals with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and many other companies. Taking over Ask.com at a reasonable price would help increase Bing’s userbase, plain and simple.So should Microsoft buy itself some more search share? It seems like a ripe opportunity to gain a 4% boost and acquire a decent brand at a reasonable price (when someone wants to bail on a market, you can usually get bang for your buck). It may not shift the balance of power between Google and Bing immediately, but when you put together all of these moves and deals, it can quickly add up to something big.Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, TwitterTags: Ask.com, bing, Google, iac, microsoft
Yesterday we wrote about the Facebook platform roadmapunveiled to application developers that included a lot of detail about the direction the company would be taking with its hugely successful application platform. This morning Facebook published a follow-up postaimed more at the average user that describes the changes we’ll start to see on the front end.One of the more interesting bits is the addition of Dashboards to better manage and stay on top of your Applications and Games. The applications menu itself will also move up to your left-hand sidebar from its current position, relegated to the bottom left-hand corner of the page in the navigation toolbar since last September’s major redesign. In many ways it seems like Applications are about to see a renaissance in terms of prominence and better user management tools, including new settings to make the applications you use less spammy.With new Dashboards for Applications and Games, you’ll be able to more easily see at a glance which apps you’re interacting with more, which games are currently in progress, and which app and game activity is most worth paying attention to. You’ll also be able to bookmark your favorite apps on the home page. All this will be a boon to those of us who don’t hesitate to add new applications at the drop of a hat but don’t relish having to maintain and weed out older apps, or digging through long lists to find what we’re looking for.Notifications from applications will also undergo a sea change, with email becoming the new primary mode of interacting with and receiving notifications from applications. Facebook likens it to “signing up for or creating accounts on other web services, which is essentially what applications on Facebook are.” You’ll thus be able to take advantage of the features of email and use whatever folders and routing rules you like to help manage communications from those apps, as well as easily unsubscribe from any noisy or unwanted apps.New application spam controls will also help cut down on the noise from various games and apps. Instead of being overwhelmed by a river of notifications, requests and invitations from apps that may take action on your behalf, you’ll be able to limit what you see in your News Feed to app notifications explicitly sent by your friends.Renewed Focus on ApplicationsAll in all a big chunk of the new roadmap is tantamount to a renewed focus on the applications platform and making the experience more useful and less noisy for users. Facebook is responding to one of the most frequent user requests, which is gaining more control over the News Feed and getting finer-grained tools to avoid information overload. Also notice that Facebook is learning to prep its users far in advance of actual interface changes, perhaps having picked up a lesson in that regard from the patternof user revoltsthat typically accompany its redesigns.What do you think about the upcoming changes to applications? Does it get you more excited about interacting with Facebook apps or less? Do you have any requests for items you’d like to see in your Dashboards? Let us know in the comments.Reviews: FacebookTags: applications, facebook, filters, games, redesign, user interface
