Monthly Archives: April 2013

Google Glasses

The Tuesday Bite-Sized News Edition

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1)      Hackers take over 90,000 WordPress blogs. If you are a WordPress user, Matt Mullenweg (a WordPress Founder) has some security tips for you, just in case.

2)      Dove’s latest 3-minute YouTube ad goes viral after addressing the perception vs. reality beauty issue. The ad has a former SJPD forensic artist sketching women’s faces based only on the way they describe themselves, while having no way of seeing them. The results sure are food for thought.

3)      Google Glass is finally ready to ship, but only to early adopters and developers. A proper worldwide launch seems closer than previously estimated.

4)      How To Monetise Google Hangouts – didn’t think it was possible? Glamour magazine proves otherwise by incorporating product placements in Google Hangouts.

5)      Facebook is expanding its ads targeting by allowing advertisers to target 500  specific segments such as ‘Car Buyers’, ‘Luxury Apparel Buyers’ based on user purchases.

6)      The hyper-local mobile app Foursquare has launched a major update for its iOS app, and so, Foursquare 6.0 is now in the app store. The primary focus of the app appears to have shifted from discovering what your friends are doing to discovering what you can do.

Friday wrap up

Friday Wrap Up! #1

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Technology hardly ever has a slow week and the same applies to this one, too. So, we are back with our weekly wrap-up of interesting news to keep you updated – with bite-sized info-nuggets (yes, yes, we can’t believe we said that either.)

For starters, Pew Internet released an extremely illuminating study on the e-book trend, bringing to light the fact that at least 21% American have read an e-book and these digital book versions are definitely, inarguably, here to stay.

CareerBliss, the employer review site also released their findings on the happiest tech companies in America and, don’t we know it, Google came out on top, while Texas Instruments and Avaya rounded off the top three.

A BIA/Kelsey study also shed light on the incredible potential and growth of Social Advertising as it forecasts that U.S. Social Ad Revenues are set to skyrocket to $11Bn in 2017.  You can read the study in full here.

Google also added a new tool to its existing plethora of quirky tools called the Inactive Account Manager. It doesn’t matter if you are taking an extended vacation or are planning your digital afterlife – the (unfortunately named) Inactive Account Manager will address your needs.

Speaking of Google, a few days ago, we covered the doom of Google Reader on our Apps Mav blog. On our list of Top 5 suggested alternatives was Pulse Reader and what seems like an extremely promising move, LinkedIn has acquired the company for approximately $90 million.

Last, but definitely not the least, Twitter’s ill-kept secret, the Twitter Music app will be releasing today. The app will focus mainly on music trending on Social Media, quite like Twitter, and have purchase options, as well.

We’ll be back next Friday with the next wrap-up. Until then, share your feedback, bouquets, brickbats in the Comments section and stay glued for other social media updates!

#Bestlieever trended all week long

The Maverick Mav Friday Wrap-Up

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Technology doesn’t have a slow day any longer, thanks to the ceaseless wonders of social media, and this Friday we bring a wrap up of all the news you may have missed, but shouldn’t have. For starters, the hashtag to create enormous waves on Twitter this week would have made Pinocchio proud – #BestLieEver, a hashtag started by Jai Brooks from right here in Melbourne became popular enough to start a clique of its own. Check out what people had to contribute (and you can bet they had a LOT), here.

Pinterest works like a charm to get exposure for your products if your brand is about fashion, food or design, but not everyone knows how to work it yet (If you need assistance managing your social media presence or only Pinterest? Send us an inquiry today for a customized solution!) However, Mashable has put together a handy little slideshow depicting 10 extremely creative, and innovative uses for Pinterest.

It’s been a good week for art and poetry aficionados, too, with the New York Times’ Poetry Month kicking off with the launch of their haiku Tumblr. The George Eastman House, world’s oldest photography museum also joined the Google Art Project and is now available online for public viewing with a total of more than 40,000 works of art.

We also came to hear of Facebook creating new APIs to track comment threads after launching the ‘Reply’ to Comments feature last week, to help brands identify most popular comments, replies, and threads. Also keeping us occupied was Socialbakers’ fantastic analysis of the Game of Thrones’ fandom on social media, which is now apparently as big as Westeros itself (figuratively speaking, of course). Check out their fantastic infographic here. Additionally, LinkedIn has added a ‘mention’ feature to its platform, Facebook-style.

The biggest, yet the most underwhelming news, however, was the launch of Android: Facebook Home. While many were hoping for it to be the Facebook Phone or a Facebook OS, it is neither. Instead, it is a new home screen and app launcher interface for select Android smartphones. Watch Facebook’s ad for Facebook Home to understand how Facebook thinks it can help you.

Read more about Facebook Home here, and while we bid you adieu and give ourselves unto the weekend, we will be back soonish with more technology news. Have a good one, until then!

Playboy’s iPhone App, Facebook iPhone OS and Google+ News For Developers

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Today’s been an interesting day for technology and in our constant endeavour to bring you the freshest of technology and digital news, here are our two bits on what’s been going on:

1) Playboy Magazine has launched a comparatively demure mobile application for iPhones. The application will focus on showcasing exclusive content made for the app, which includes ‘non-nude’ pictorials and lifestyle content, etc. However, those looking for ‘regular’, uncensored Playboy issues can simply head to i.playboy.com  for Playboy’s web-based iPad app.
Read more here.

2) Rumours of the ‘Facebook Phone’ are exciting to one and all and the most recent addition to the speculations was a direct result of what Android Police claims is a leaked version of the Facebook Phone’s operating system. The device is supposed to be a mid-range smartphone with a 4-3-inch display, 1GB RAM, dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and a 5MP camera.
Read more here.

3) Google+ sign-ins were a special gift to developers everywhere from Google last month, the feature allowing users to sign-in to non-Google websites using their Google log-in, much like its Twitter and Facebook counterparts. Now, Google has announced support for social infrastructure platforms Janrain and Gigya which enables adding trust authentication to apps and sites, allows users to share interactive posts  with connections and much more.
Read more here.

Source: Thierry Cohen’s Cities Without Light Pollution

The Mav Wrap up – April Fool’s special

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April Fool’s Day is always a big day for the more mischievous of the lot, but the rest of us enjoy it just as much, as long as our role is that of spectators. But it wasn’t just a day full of pranks. Here’s our round-up of the most arresting technology and design news from yesterday.

1)      Top 10 YouTube Prank Videos:

Parents Tell Children That Their Halloween Candy is Over

April Fool’s obviously initiated a flurry of prank videos on YouTube, but the YouTube took the time to sift and curate the best of the lot. To see the full list of videos, click here.

2)       Game of Thrones Autotune:

HBO’s super-popular  series Game of Thrones returned for a 3rd season this past Sunday night, sending the internet fandom into a tizzy. As a result,  an auto tune remix of Arya’s list of enemies with the house motto ‘A Lannister always pays his debts’, is now a thing. Don’t believe us? See for yourself.

3)      Amazon Updates Cloud Drive:

Giving Dropbox and Google Drive some stiff competition in the area of cloud storage, Amazon has updated its Cloud Drive service with desktop file-syncing feature, which was lacking since its May 2012 launch. “The updated app makes it simple for users to put files in Cloud Drive and to access them from any of their computers, ensuring that they always have access to the latest version of their files from home and on the road,” the company states.

4)      Thierry Cohen’s Cities Without Light Pollution:


We have always been fans of great graphic design work combined with astounding photography to make a statement, and Thierry Cohen’s ‘Major Cities Without Light Pollution falls right under that bracket. The French photographer took nighttime pictures of major cityscapes and combined them with pictures of deserted places with corresponding angles and latitudes and the results are breathtaking. Kinda goes to show what we’re all missing. See the full story and images here.