Go out into the world, ye mortals, and slay some dragons or something. Or at least change up your brunch order for once…

FALCOR - the URiNATOR (TROGDOR Parody)

Amy-Mae Elliott: It's an oldie-but-a-goodie. You know seeing the dragon dog napanating on the pee pad will only improve your Friday afternoon. Faaaalcor!

OEDIPUS (starring... vegetables)

Erica Swallow: Oedipus, starring vegetables. I've never felt so sorry for a potato.

Mythology - Lord Shiva

Jolie O'Dell: Pros include bad early-'80s animation styles, hypnotic-bordering- on-somnolent voiceovers, and educational value. If you were ever forced to watch life-of-Jesus cartoons in Sunday school as a kid, well, this is what a few bajillion kids elsewhere in the world have to watch.

Dan Telfer: "The Best Dinosaur"

Zachary Sniderman: Going way back to the folklore of Jurassic Park: "The velociraptor was the Tanya Harding of the dinosaur kingdom. Ok? F*ck that piece of sh*t." (NB: Language NSFW)

Hercules - Zero to Hero (English Sing-along)

Stefanie Rennert: Who put the glad in gladiator? Hercules! Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? This will put you in a great mood for the weekend!

Drunk History Vol. 6 Featuring John C. Reilly, and Crispin Glover

Brenna Ehrlich: Like many YouTube videos, this one was discovered on Facebook, where my FB friends share things allllll day. Anyway, it features Crispin Glover (rad). Consequently, it's probably not that SFW -- especially since it's called "Drunk History."

image courtesy of iStockphoto, duncan1890

More About: Film, humor, music, mythology, pop culture, television, viral video, youtube

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According to Bloomberg, Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry, is planning on releasing its tablet device this fall. The device will reportedly feature a 9.7″ screen, roughly the same dimensions as the iPad. The device will also feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options, with the option of using an existing BlackBerry smartphone as the data connection.

Rumors of a BlackBerry tablet have been swirling for quite some time, but Bloomberg is citing two sources familiar with the details. RIM could not be reached for comment, but declined to speak with Bloomberg as the company doesn’t comment on rumors or speculations.

RIM recently took over the domain BlackPad.com, fueling speculation that this will be the moniker for the new device. As CrackBerry.com notes, however, RIM has more than 4000 registered domains; “BlackPad” may not end up being the name for the fabled product.

Bloomberg’s sources say that the device will feature front- and back-facing cameras for video conferencing. Rather than bundling the device with a 3G data connection, it will use Wi-Fi or connect to a BlackBerry phone via Bluetooth to tether a data connection. Although the tether option is potentially less expensive for consumers (who wouldn’t need to have another subscription to use the BlackPad), we’re not really sure why a 3G radio would be omitted as an option.

The biggest question we have about a BlackBerry tablet involves the keyboard. If you’re into physical keyboards, in our mind, the BlackBerry stands out among other devices with this feature. However, physical keyboards and tablets don’t really mesh. In any event, we hope RIM doesn’t decide to include the click-screen that make the BlackBerry Storm and Storm II such “fun” to use.

Incidentally, RIM has an event Tuesday, at which point the company is expected to unveil its latest BlackBerry smartphone, the 9800. The device will feature a slide-out keyboard alongside a pure touch screen. Whether or not a slide-out keyboard would work on a larger form remains to be seen.

Does this Make Sense?

RIM is busy readying BlackBerry OS 6.0 for release; the new OS, which includes a new browser, better media options and tighter social network connectivity, looks like it just might be what RIM needs to recharge the BlackBerry brand.

However, we question the need for an RIM tablet. Even before the iPad was officially announced, a larger-form iOS device made sense because of the large ecosystem of games, media players and entertainment content that were already available from the iTunes ecosystem.

BlackBerry doesn’t have that same ecosystem. Sure, a BlackPad could be a great device for watching video and surfing the web, but the BlackBerry’s best features have always been based around instant messaging, e-mail and getting things done. That isn’t to say that that experience can’t translate well to a tablet. With the right software support and screen resolution, the BlackPad could be a great mobile word processor. But the use cases for consumers don’t seem as apparent they do with other devices.

Ultimately, we think price is going to be a big factor in the success of a BlackBerry tablet. I know lots of BlackBerry users who have purchased an iPod touch or an iPad, but I don’t know if Android or iOS users would jump at the chance to get a BlackBerry powered tablet.

What do you think of the BlackPad rumors so far? If RIM made a tablet, would you be interested in buying one?

More About: blackberry, blackberry tablet, blackpad, RIM

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Patently Apple has uncovered some of the latest developments, which include additions to the iTravel app that surfaced back in April, as well as social shopping and fashion applications.

We’ve covered some of Apple’s other iOS-related patents in the past, including iTickets and iGroups, as well as some system-wide integrations with Facebook, but the newest patents revolve around two areas that really make sense for a mobile device.

Travel Simplicity?

The initial iTravel patent detailed an application that could connect to various airlines or transportation services, and book or retrieve reservations for flights, hotels, car rentals, etc., all from the device. Check-in/Baggage Claim data and identity information could also be accessed in the app to make boarding and retrieving or checking luggage that much easier.

The most recent iTravel patentreveals that in addition to making and retrieving reservations, the iTravel app could actually communicate with equipment on airplanes and add a layer of personalization to travel.

For instance, using the app, you could not only book your flight, but also specify what type of in-flight entertainment you want, your food and beverage choices, makes adjustments to your seat, the air and the lighting, and so forth. You could also use the app to find restaurants and other services in the airport.

As cool as having the ability to specify, book and control your flight preferences is, that only takes care of the transportation aspect of travel. What about lodging? Well, it turns out that Apple has some ideas for that too. Yet another iTravel patent application surfaced yesterday, this one detailing how the iTravel app could connect with a hotel before you check in, after you arrive and when you are ready to leave.

In addition to making room reservations, travelers could also make requests about temperature, lighting, the types of food or beverages to have available, etc. Then, the iPhone could act as a room key and as a remote control for things like A/V devices.

The iTravel app could also connect directly to hotel services like dry cleaning, room service and the hotel spa, and make it easy to reserve tables at nearby restaurants, book cabs or get suggestions for local entertainment. Finally, the app could be used to pay your bill, request transportation, use reward programs and also keep track of receipts.

Now, many of these features would be dependent on compatible hotel systems, but wouldn’t being able to do all that from one device making frequent (or even infrequent) traveling less stressful?

The Virtual Closet

In addition to the iTravel patent applications, Patently Apple also uncovered some details about something called Virtual Closet. Looking at the patent application, it seems obvious that a large clothing retailer is in talks with Apple to have some sort of deeper device-level integration to make the shopping experience more, well, modern.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Clueless (one of my all-time favorites, I might add), you’ll recall that at the beginning, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) uses her computer to pick out her outfit for school. She’s able to scan through all of her items, pair them together and is alerted when something is mismatched.

This is Virtual Closet in a nutshell. It only took 15 years, but the future has arrived. Virtual Closet can be used to catalog real clothing and to help put together outfits; get suggestions on what looks good; mark items as dirty, clean, “needs dry cleaning,” or leant to a friend; and so forth. From a pure organizational standpoint, this is brilliant.

I created a database in Bento that has most of my clothing cataloged and organized. I did this because the last time I moved I needed four wardrobe boxes (each box was supposed to be good for an average person’s entire wardrobe, according to our moving box company), three suitcases and still a few loads in the car to get everything moved. My database has tags for season, date purchased, cut, brand, color and condition, but building in a rating and flag system for when things have been worn too many times, or for grouping items that should be worn together, was something that was too complicated.

The app also has a social component so that you can coordinate with friends, get their input, and also exchange clothes back and forth.

In addition to cataloging and keeping track of clothing, Apple is working to improve clothes buying. The patent documents show graphics for Ralph Lauren — very likely one of the brands that is working with Apple on this endeavor.

The idea behind this patent is to drive consumers to high-end apparel stores by offering coupons, exclusive deals and notifications when new items are available in stores.

This has potential. Although Virtual Closet is a great idea, it probably isn’t a big revenue driver. However, if you take the current Ralph Lauren Collection iPhone app and you add geo-aware notifications to alert him or her of special discounts, stock counts or when new items are coming into the store, that’s a real way to drive traffic.

How great would it be, for instance, if you could be alerted when you favorite store got in some pants or tops in your size? As hard as it is to believe, many retailers still handle online merchandise and retail store merchandise in completely different divisions. Even if the styles available are the same at both places, you can’t place an online order in the store, or request a store transfer or direct shipment online.

Inside the store itself, the applications could offer recommendations, gift guides, access to your social networks for advice, etc.

In essence, this could be a virtual clothing catalog with geo-aware enhancements.

What Do These Patents Mean for App Developers?

Unwired opined that Apple is “stealing” or trying to patent application ideas. Although some of the theoretical usage cases are very specific (and could find their way into official or third-party apps), the actual crux of the patents in these cases isn’t about the concept, but execution.

In other words, just because Apple has a patent that includes a hotel-specific application designed to let users pay their bills, order room service and order a movie from their iPhone doesn’t preclude any other application from doing something very similar. Instead, what’s being patented is the way that the different systems communicate together and the bridging of multiple services in one stream.

In fact, many of the elements in these patents (which were filed in Q4 2009) have a lot in common with Siri, the personal assistant app that Apple acquired at the end of April.

The Supreme Court’s recent Bilski decision didn’t really clarify anything about the future validity of software patents, but as it stands, these most recent filings have a lot more to do with infrastructure and wireless communication gateways than anything that is application-specific.

What do you think of iTravel, Virtual Closet and the enhanced shopping patents?

[img credit: Patently Apple]

More About: apple, itravel, patently apple, patents, virtual closet

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For your viewing pleasure we’ve hit up YouTube for 10 of the best examples of memes remade to music.

From Leeroy Jenkins to Chris Crocker, these amusing remixes take a video and make it even more memorable — let us know your favorites in the comments below.

1. Nintendo 64

The original remix (which has notched up nearly 7 million views) is not embeddable (boo!), so here’s the heavy metal version instead.

2. Charlie Bit Me

Ow Charlie! If you never tire of hearing that phrase, you're gonna love this.

3. David After Dentist

Whatever your thoughts are on David's dad posting this clip for the whole world to see, you've got to admire the skill of this remixer.

4. This is Sparta!

Some funny video effects accompanying the techno soundtrack elevate this effort to a class above most remixes.

5. Leeroy Jenkins

Leeroy Jenkins' WoW, which made him Internet famous, gets the remix music treatment.

6. Leave Britney Alone

Chris Crocker's infamous rant gets only more infamous with this trance remix.

7. Bill O'Reilly Flips Out

Needless to say, this one contains some strong language.

8. Bacon is Good For Me

That bratty kid from Wife Swap's bacon-flavored tantrum is here immortalized in meme music.

9. Old Spice Guy

This could only be improved with a few more clips of Isaiah Mustafa saying "I'm on a horse."

10. Double Rainbow

The meme remix song comes of age with this excellent take on the double rainbow phenomenon.

BONUS: Weezer - Pork And Beans

How many viral videos, memes and other Internet trends can you spot in this music video from Weezer?

More YouTube Resources from Mashable:

- Top 10 Robot Videos on YouTube
- 10 YouTube Videos of People Doing Amazing Things
- Top 10 YouTube News Bloopers
- Top 10 Stop Motion Videos on YouTube
- 10 Best “Get a Mac” Parodies [VIDEOS]

More About: funny, memes, music, remixes, videos, viral videos, web video, youtube

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The package includes:

• CD Copy of Lady Gaga’s The Remix
• Limited Edition Vinyl Copy of The Remix
• Lady Gaga The Fame Monster Super Deluxe (includes fan collector’s art book, pull-out posters, themed fanzines, a paper doll collection, and more…” (sold out)
• Telephone Limited Edition Poster featuring Beyonce
• Fame Monster Limited Edition Gold Lithograph

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#WinWeekend will begin weekly at 5:00 p.m. ET on Fridays and end Sunday at 11:59 p.m. ET. At the end of the promotion period each week, a random drawing will be conducted from among all eligible entries received to select the weekly prizes. A winner will be selected for each of the prizes listed. At this time, the contest is limited to U.S. residents only. However, we are working on making this contest available to international participants. As we move forward, the more people that participate in the sweepstakes, the bigger and better the prizes will get.

Thanks to Our Partner LiveNation.com

Thank you to our partner, LiveNation.com, which is supporting prizes of the sweepstakes. “Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE-LYV) is the largest live entertainment company in the world, consisting of five businesses: concert promotion and venue operations, sponsorship, ticketing solutions, e-commerce and artist management. Live Nation seeks to innovate and enhance the live entertainment experience for artists and fans: before, during and after the show.” Follow them on Twitter and join them on Facebook.

Live Nation is also running a “Tweet to Meet” sweepstakes with Lady Gaga, which you can check out here.

More About: contest, Lady Gaga, live nation, sweepstakes, winweekend

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According to Twitter, “the suggestions are based on several factors, including people you follow and the people they follow.” The company also notes that you’ll start to see recommendations when looking at other users’ profiles. It will also be making the feature available to developers so the functionality can be included in third-party apps.

The move highlights an increased push by Twitter toward user discovery. Earlier this month, the service started displaying people results next to keyword search results in an effort to help users discover more people to follow; after all, Twitter is more interesting if you actually have some tweets showing up in your stream.

Previously, Twitter offered a hand-curated “Suggested User List” to new users, though that has since been retired in favor of a slew of follow options by area of interest. Overall, today’s addition marks yet another step the company needs to take to keep new users engaged on the service. It would also be a logical spot for Twitter to insert its rumored feature that would let users pay for more followers — stay tuned.

[thumbnail credit: law_keven]

More About: social media, twitter

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This week, our valued sponsors are: PilotGroup Ltd, Trada, bmi, IGLOO, IDG, Yield Software, Clickatell, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, MaxCDN and Eventbrite.

PilotGroup Ltd has been in the social networking software market for seven years and is now one of its leading software providers. Its PG Social Networking Solution is a fully featured and powerful package to start your own niche, community, business and professional social network with a whole range of options your members would expect at a social networking site. Modules structure, multi-language interface, various payment methods, paid services are efficient at site monetization and building an active community. Everything put together, you get all in one place at an affordable price. Start your own Social Networking site fast and easy! Check out our features list at datingpro.com/social.

Trada is the first and only crowdsourced paid search marketplace, allowing businesses and advertising agencies to run search marketing campaigns on Google, Yahoo and Bing by leveraging the skills of hundreds of the world’s best PPC experts. Built for businesses spending between $5,000 and $50,000 per month in paid search, Trada eliminates the hassle and cost of managing a paid-search campaign in-house for time-strapped business owners and marketers.

bmi is the second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest international airports. From our Heathrow hub we operate services in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

bmi’s global reach is further extended by being a member of Star Alliance, a grouping of 27 international airlines.

bmi is committed to using technology such as E-ticketing, Online Booking, Self Check-in at the airport and via the Internet, helping to improve the pre-flight experience. This means the airline can boast one of the best punctuality records of any airline operating in the UK.

IGLOO is a social software company that builds online communities for business. Uniting content management, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools within one secure social networking platform, IGLOO enables organizations to overcome the barriers to communication and collaboration that emerge because of size. Whether the obstacles are organizational or geographic, a more open and connected business improves employee productivity (Workplace Communities) and helps to foster better relationships with customers, partners and suppliers (Marketplace Communities). Learn more about how IGLOO is socializing the workplace and helping organizations build successful online communities through the IGLOO Social Media Playbook.

IDG’s Strategic Marketing Services group works with tech marketers to deliver services that include integrated multimedia marketing programs, program consulting and IDG Amplify social media advertising.

Yield Software’s Yield Web Marketing Suite optimizes paid search (PPC) natural search (SEO) and landing pages, all in one easy-to-use Web-based system. A simple, intuitive interface together with sophisticated algorithms work seamlessly to optimize SEM campaigns every minute of every day, enabling growing businesses and their agencies to lower costs, improve performance and increase profitability. Yield also offers a free SEO Analyzer, which delivers a report covering how well a site is optimized and suggestions for improvement. Yield Software—Web Marketing Made Easy.

Clickatell offers mobile social networks the opportunity to measure their return on investment. Not only does Clickatell offer an Interactive Campaign Manager tool that allows you to monitor and intervene in your customer campaigns in real time, it also generates and manages database integration and comes with additional marketing tools. Track the delivery status of your text messages and the responses; take the guesswork out of campaigning. Your valuable messages will always be delivered as our products allow for message escalation to alternative delivery gateways. Social networks are also, through the account management package, given control over network channels and connectivity options. All necessary tasks have been automated and our central interface allows you to manage multiple connections and projects at the same time.

Which leading social networking companies have chosen Clickatell as a mobile messaging partner? Read our success stories here.

BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help.

For more information or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.

MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use e-mail marketing service. You design, me deliver.

MaxCDN – Content Delivery Network. MaxCDN makes it easy and affordable to get maximum global performance from your site and enable your visitors to get the most out of their visit! MaxCDN offers: resistance to the Digg effect, SSL Integration, No Setup Fee, US-based customer service, No Commitments. Get 1 TeraByte for just $39.95 today!

Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

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Founded in 1998 as a free service, Dynamic Network Services Incorporated (Dyn Inc.) now operates two extremely reliable, “rock solid,” global DNS platforms; DynDNS.com for home/SMB users and the Dynect Platform for corporations and enterprises. As a leading provider of managed DNS services, Dyn Inc. plays a key role in keeping the Internet’s DNS infrastructure running smoothly, handling trillions of queries per day and servicing nearly four million active users. With a range of innovative solutions, from domain name and e-mail services on DynDNS.com, to failover, load balancing, traffic management and CDN balancing services with the Dynect Platform, Dyn Inc. remains committed to world class customer service and engineering excellence. Uptime is the Bottom Line. For more information about Dyn Inc., visit www.dyn.com, e-mail hello@dyn.com or call +1-603-668-4998.

ConcentricSky offers web development and strategic consulting services with a focus on emerging technologies such as Social Media and iPhone Apps. From simple websites to integrated web applications, we deliver innovative solutions that exceed your expectations – not your budget.

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If you recall, the Snuggie came on the scene around 2008-2009. The ad for the product — which is basically a blanket with sleeves — was directed by Fred Vanore at Blue Moon Studios. The vid was intended to be “fun and quirky, just to get the TV viewer’s attention,” says a rep, but it quickly went viral, because, well, it was weird.

“We had no idea that the consumer would respond in the way that would make the Snuggie cult-like,” says the rep. Apparently the fact that it looks like a monk’s threads wasn’t a giveaway. Still, the cult-like nature of the blanket beast really drove sales — and even spawned imitators. “When the TV add went viral it drove sales in a significant way because it really solidified the brand personality and built the momentum of the campaign,” the rep added.

See below to refresh your memory:

Well, it seems that the company is keen to capitalize on the viral success of the previous campaign, because it’s launching a contest to find the next big meme-tastic hit. The rules are pretty simple: Allstar Products Group, the maker of Snuggie, is inviting people to enter the Snuggie Choice Film Awards via SnuggieFanClub.com. All you have to do is create your own tribute, parody, song etc. — no longer than three minutes — and submit it to the webpage above. The contest ends on September 1 at midnight, at which point six finalists will be chosen by Snuggie fans. The finalists will be flown to New York in October. Awards include a $5,000 grand prize and $2,500 for second and third place, Snuggies (natch), and the chance to appear in future commercials.

Snuggie is smart to turn to social media to promote its new fall line, but we have to wonder if this kind of campaign will work. The Snuggie went viral rather organically at the onset, and it’s tough to know whether people purchased the product ironically, or because they were seriously in need of a blanket with sleeves. What do you think? Is Snuggie beating the viral horse dead?

In the meantime, check out Snuggie’s latest TV spot. This one titled “Snugarena.” You’ll see why…

More About: MARKETING, money, pop culture, snuggie, viral video

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Online video continues to be an area with huge growth and expansion for small businesses and brands. Video is such a great way to connect with users and to tell a story in a way that words or static images often can’t.

Thanks to advances in technology, buying equipment and producing video is easier and less expensive than ever before. The harder tasks are getting video online, serving it across platforms, and integrating it with your existing advertising strategies.

Fortunately, there are some great web services and companies out there dedicated to helping business owners expand and improve their online video strategies.

1. Encoding.com

Shooting and editing video content is only half of the battle, and we would argue that these days, it’s actually the less painful half. Once you have that video shot and edited, the next step is finding a way to serve it. The problem is, getting online video to work across web browsers, mobile phones and connected devices isn’t as easy as it sounds.

This is where Encoding.com comes in. Encoding.com is a service that will convert and serve your video into any formats you wish. That means you can take video you shoot and edit and serve it to users who visit your site on an iPhone, BlackBerry, desktop computer or even a connected television device like the upcoming Google TV.

Rather than having to manually transcode your content into each format you need, Encoding.com does it all on their end and can even serve content using a technology called HTTP streaming, which is specifically designed for making video look and perform its best on the iPhone or iPad.

Encoding.com also has its own white label service, so if you want to offer video services to your clients, you can let Encoding.com’s backend do all the hard work and you can just package it together with your other solutions.

2. mDialog

In online video, one of the areas that is seeing the most innovation is the HTML5 video space. HTML5 is important because it means that content can play directly on devices through a web browser, eliminating the need for a plugin or player like Adobe Flash. That ultimately makes video and by extension, video content, more accessible.

One of the drawbacks of using a pure HTML5 solution is that many of the existing advertising platforms for web video are based on Flash. However, companies are quickly filling in the voids in the HTML5 space; one company that is working hard to make it easy to insert dynamic ads into live or pre-recorded video streams is mDialog.

mDialog offers publishers and content providers an easy way to encode and serve video in HTML5, while also making it easy to insert ads or b-roll based on factors like geolocation or the identity of the user. If you want to move to an HTML5 solution so you can reach more users but are concerned with how to monetize that solution, take a look at mDialog.

3. Brightcove

Brightcove is one of the big players in the video platform space. It makes it easy to upload, manage and monetize online video. You can customize the look and feel of the player and Brightcove supports tons of different platforms, including mobile and set-top boxes.

Brightcove also lets you track and measure your video metrics. Brightcove works with practically every major ad platform and recently announced a partnership with FreeWheel to offer users the ability to serve HTML5 video that is ad-supported (on FreeWheel’s end) and trackable. Likewise, advertisers can work with FreeWheel to get their ads displayed across its network and across web properties regardless of platform.

4. Blip.tv

Blip.tv got into the online video space at a very competitive time, competing against YouTube and countless other online video hosts. The reason that blip.tv has been able to survive over the last five years — and in fact even raise additional capital — is because it has never tried to be YouTube and instead has concentrated on cultivating quality content and signing deals to get wide distribution across platforms and devices.

To that end, blip.tv has ramped up its own internal sales team and worked hard to build advertising partnerships so that it can secure quality advertisements for the content it hosts on its network. For content creators, this is really great, because they can just focus on making great content. Blip.tv in turn, focuses on providing its content creators with tools for better distribution, ad management and statistical analysis.

We like that blip.tv sees the big picture and is focused on bringing content to all screens — not just the computer monitor.

5. & 6. Thwapr and Mogreet

When we discuss mobile video, it is usually in the context of the iPhone or other smart devices. That’s overlooking a very large audience of users who have the ability to receive and watch video on their mobile phones, but may not have a smartphone.

Using MMS messages, companies like Mogreet and Thwapr are enabling businesses and advertisers to send video messages to their users via text message. If you can get an MMS message, you can get video.

For non-profits especially, this can be a great way to reach out and to get a direct call to action. Mogreet teamed up with the David Lynch Foundation to provide Lynch’s fans with MMS messages promoting the Foundation’s causes and putting the spotlight on emerging artists.

Thwapr has had similar success. The NHL team the Phoenix Coyotes teamed up with the company back in April to offer fans special mobile video updates from games and press conferences. Fans just needed to text a special number and they got free video updates from their favorite team. What makes Thwapr extra cool is that you can even send video replies back using MMS, which makes it a great way to solicit interactive feedback and support.

As the Red Cross campaign after the Haitian earthquake proved, text messaging is a great way to raise awareness and solicit funds. Pairing that with the power for mobile video has some really important implications for small business owners or brands.

What are some of your favorite online video tools for enhancing your video strategy? Let us know!

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Add Multimedia to Your Blog
- HOW TO: Help Employees Talk About Your Brand Online
- How Coca-Cola Created Its “Happiness Machine” [INTERVIEW]
- 10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
- 5 Lessons to Learn from Web Startups

More About: blip.tv, brightcove, business, encoding.com, HTML5, mdialog, mogreet, small business, thwapr, video

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The enhanced e-book [iTunes link] includes an original interview with the author and 27 historic video segments produced by CBS News embedded alongside the original text, which was first published in hardcover in May 2008. A digital version without the video is also available through Amazon’s Kindle Store.

“Since the first digital books were published, many have wondered when we would be able to add to the reading experience by exploiting the full capabilities of digital media,” Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster observed. “That moment is now, and we are especially pleased that for Nixonland, our first enhanced e-book, we are able to partner with our colleagues at CBS News to offer readers a book that combines to superb effect a critically acclaimed bestselling work with the gold standard of broadcast journalism,” she said.

A few other traditional publishers have produced similar kinds of e-books; Hachette released an “enriched” version of David Baldacci’s latest novel in the spring, and Penguin Group published an “amplified” edition of Ken Follett’s bestseller, The Pillars of the Earth, to coincide with the release of an eight-part miniseries based on the epic by Starz Entertainment. Well-known Japanese author Ryu Murakami is working with a software company to produce a musically enhanced version of his next novel, cutting his publisher of record out of the process altogether.

This is, we think, just the beginning of what could become an entirely new medium, in which texts are merely one component of a larger multimedia experience. These new kinds of e-books also give the iPad and mobile applications a leg up over e-reader devices like the Kindle and Nook, which cannot currently support elements like video and full-color slideshows.

What do you think about the concept of enhanced e-books? Would you be more likely to abandon your paperbacks or e-readers for a more immersive, multimedia-rich experience?

[via The New York Times]

More About: amazon, apple, e-books, iBookstore, iOS, ipad, iphone, Kindle, scribner, Simon & Schuster

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We’d love to know what you think about it so that we can continue to integrate new features and improve the application for our readers. Here are some of the details about the updates:

iOS multitasking: Users who are running iOS 4 (with an iPhone 3GS or 4) can now take advantage of fast application switching. When they leave the application and come back to it, the application will open to the same place within app where they left off.

iPhone 4 Retina Display Support: We reworked all of the designs to take advantage of the double pixel density of the iPhone 4’s retina display. The graphical elements now look more crisp and clear.

Fixed Twitter and Commenting Bugs: By default we use Twitter web for sharing posts in tweets. Twitter changed its site since we originally built the app and the URL we were using was no longer working. The URL is updated and working again. We also had a number of users report a bug that caused the application to crash when they were viewing a comment. That bug is now fixed and comments are working smoothly.

Other Enhancements: Other enhancements include subtle changes that contribute to an overall better user experience. This includes improvements to the design of share buttons, faster loading for trending stories and more.

[ Download Mashable's iPhone App Today! ]

More About: apple, iOS4, iphone, iphone applications, mashable, Mobile 2.0

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Mankato, Minnesota, is the home of the Vikings for the duration of training camp. To celebrate the upcoming season, the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau has partnered with SCVNGR and will challenge fans to trek about the community, complete challenges and earn prizes in the process.

The Visitors Bureau essentially revamped a game it had already created called “Jared’s Journey,” and are now using SCVNGR to bring it to life in a whole new form. The original “Jared’s Journey” involved a cardboard cutout of the Vikings “sack machine,” Jared Allen, and was toted around town to local establishments.

The SCVNGR variety tasks fan to complete challenges — like snapping a photo of the Minnesota State University mascot — to earn points. Those that do can win Jared Allen autographed merchandise or tickets to a Vikings game.

SCVNGR Founder and CEO Seth Priebatsch tells us that the deal came about because the Mankato Visitors Bureau was inspired by how the city of Philadelphia is using the service. The staff then approached the team about a training camp trek to build pre-season buzz for Vikings, and thus “Jared’s Journey” was reborn in SCVNGR form.

[img credit: eytonz]

More About: football, minnesota vikings, Mobile 2.0, scvngr

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According to Bloomberg, after three years of stalled progress, Transit Wireless LLC — a conglomerate of wireless and construction companies that was awarded a contract to undergo this project with New York Transit — has finally found the money to move forward. Broadcast Australia has footed the bill, which will bring NYC up to speed with Singapore, Berlin and Tokyo — all of which currently have Wi-Fi in the tubes.

Back in 2007, Transit Wireless LLC had promised to get the job done in 10 years, now it has two years to outfit six stations near New York’s Union Square, and then four more years for the other 271 platforms. The Wi-Fi comes in the form of smoke detector-size antennas, and will afford passengers access on platforms, mezzanines and in sections of the tunnels (not the whole tunnel). Overall, the whole deal will cost $200 million dollars — which begs the question: If the city’s willing to go to the trouble to go wireless, why do I have to take a shuttle nine weekends out of 10 because they’re “doing repairs on the tracks”? But I digress…

Pretty soon, it seems, a goodly portion of NYC will be Wi-Fi ready; AT&T outfitted Times Square with free wireless two months ago and ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks offers pro bono access as well. Just think, that whole “I was stuck in a tunnel” excuse is never going to be the same…

[img credit: arvindgrover]

More About: Mobile 2.0, money, new york, trending, Wireless

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The confirmation came via Samsung UK’s Twitter account, which says that “it’s currently in development” and “will be released for all networks at the end of September.” As we noted in our review of the Galaxy S Captivate, the device ships with Android 2.1, which means that some of the enhancements of the latest and greatest Android aren’t available on the stellar handset.

Thus far, only the Google Nexus One has received an official OTA update to Android 2.2, although HTC and Motorola are also working on bringing 2.2 to the EVO 4G and Droid X, respectively.

In benchmarks, Froyo is significantly faster than prior Android builds and adds support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Considering how fast the Galaxy S is just on Android 2.1, we expect that it will absolutely scream under Froyo.

For those of you that just can’t wait to have 2.2 on your Galaxy S devices, the custom ROM community is already hard at work and builds for the European/Asian Galaxy S devices are already starting to pop up. Be warned, these builds are incomplete and still very much in beta.

For everyone who is looking to an officially supported version of Froyo, we’ll see you in September!

[via Engdaget]

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A 2008 Gartner study on social software noted that “about 70 percent of the community typically fails to coalesce.” While the measurement and the statistics behind this statement raise questions, there is an element of truth.

There are detrimental effects of over-hyping the technology and then committing the three cardinal sins of running a community:

• If you build it they will come. This is probably the best known online community fallacy. The premise is that if I roll out a given technology set (blogs, forums, wikis, etc.), users will automatically appear and congregate, forming a robust community. This can be attributed to the lure of “social software” that companies repeatedly bite at, as opposed to seeking to extend or create value for their customers.
• Once I’ve launched it, I’m done. Many communities launch successfully, only to fade out and disappear. This is due in large part to a failure to assign ownership of the community and to have a strategy that lasts past “launch.”
• Bigger is better. The assumption here is that the overall size of a community is indicative of its success. This is challenging for most community managers and businesses to understand, as it is contrary to what they’ve usually been told.

All three can cause a community to fail, and there are plenty of examples. Understanding the community life cycle can help you avoid making these mistakes.

Understanding the Community Life Cycle

The image below is representative of the different stages of the community life cycle. It’s important to recognize that this is a macro-view, and that within and between the stages are smaller life cycles (learning, innovation, etc.).

A community is constantly in one or more of the following states with the exception of the On-Board state:

• On-Board: This is the starting point of any community, characterized by people (seekers) looking for value (content), most of which is created by the community’s founders.
• Established: The community is becoming self-sustaining, with the members (influencers, originators, etc.) creating and maintaining value within the community, although some reliance on the founders is still necessary. It is the established phases of the community where analytics can be used to understand user behavior and value.
• Mature: The community is self-sustaining, and clear relationships between individuals are being formed. Users are organized into clear types (influencers, seekers, moderators, originators, etc.) and take full ownership and responsibility for content. Little to no supervision is required by the founders, who become no more than credible participants.
• Mitosis: Core community members become disenfranchised with new participants who don’t share the same values. These core community members seek more focus as they gravitate towards specific topics and relationships. Successful communities enable this and allow the community to split into smaller nodes, thus returning to an Established phase and repeating the life cycle process.

How Is Value Perceived?

Most discussions surrounding the topic of community life cycle are based on the work done by Bruce Tuckman’s stages of group development: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

In addition, much of the value proposition for “bigger is better” is based on Metcalfe’s law, which states that the value of the network increases as the number of connections within the network increases. Hence the common belief is that the size of the community is a clear indicator of the value of the community.

It is important to note that Metcalfe’s law was created to describe telephone and facsimile networks. What’s not often considered is that social networks are dependent upon people, and people cannot obtain the same value from network size due to the “cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships,” otherwise known as Dunbar’s number. While Dunbar never proposed a specific number of relationships, most researchers agree that it is approximately 150.

Community life cycles are often portrayed as simple linear progressions, with the goal of “maintenance” once maturity is reached. However, I have found that a community has unique characteristics that conflict with many of the preconceived notions of success. While the value of the community to its creators increases as membership increases, the value to individual members may diminish. Disregard for, or lack of understanding of these behaviors can lead to the failure of a community.

A great case study here is Twitter. There are some people who believe that Twitter provides value through the size of their network and number of their relationships. Examples would include politicians, media, actors, and so on. They don’t maintain relationships individually, but with an audience of followers. However, there are people who find Twitter’s value diminishes as the number of relationships they manage increases, as the initial draw was the ability to manage relationships, not an audience.

It should be noted that I am not advocating that communities be limited by membership size. Rather, capabilities should exist within a larger community to support smaller, internal groups that can form around narrow areas of interest. This is validated by both Twitter and Facebook, which have in recent months both introduced capabilities to narrow the scope of conversations: Lists, privacy controls, and so on.

The transition from “On-Board” to “Established,” and the recognition of the “Mitosis” phase are the two areas where most organizations struggle. The first comes from the inability to relinquish some control to the community; the second comes from an inability to recognize the natural evolution of the community as it grows. Mitosis within the community is very healthy. In fact, a healthy community is the cooperative coordination of many smaller communities acting as a whole.

How Do You Apply the Community Life Cycle?

Understanding the life cycle is key to building a comprehensive community strategy, specifically when it comes to moderation and management. A few of the components impacted include: Content creation, group formation, engagement tactics, expert discovery efforts, knowledge sharing practices, and employee participation. Once the strategy is clearly defined, goals and objectives can be identified, clear measurements for success (return on investment) are marked, and the community life cycle becomes the map or playbook for understanding how to reach those goals and objectives.

The three cardinal sins can be avoided if you understand the life cycle of your community, and thus where and how to apply resources and strategy to running it.

More Online Community Resources from Mashable:

- 10 Fresh Tips for Community Managers
- 3 Ways Live Events Improve Online Communities
- 8 Things to Avoid When Building a Community

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, enot-poloskun

More About: business, community, community management, facebook, forums, online communities, social media, twitter

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That’s what a room full of PepsiCo executives, digital strategists and brand managers tried to figure out earlier this week at the company’s headquarters in Purchase, NY, where 20 promising tech startups presented ideas for leveraging their products in future PepsiCo campaigns at PepsiCo10 (for which Mashable was a media sponsor).

The companies in attendance presented technologies that could change the way we shop for groceries, pay our bill at restaurants, watch television and even wake up in the morning. Here’s a look at them and how they see some of PepsiCo’s brands (which include Gatorade, Frito Lay and Quaker) utilizing their wares:

Changing the Way We Shop

While self-checkout has been a feature of many grocery stores for some time, AisleBuyer is looking to take it a step further by allowing people to use their smartphones to scan QR codes as they shop. The startup has designed a system in which shoppers could unlock coupons and finish transactions with their credit cards, all without waiting in line.

As you can imagine, there are some logistical hurdles that need to be overcome to make AisleBuyer’s concept a reality. Pushpins takes a slightly different approach, connecting QR code scanning to your existing loyalty cards. When you check out, the coupons –- which increase the more you use PushPins -– are instantly credited via your loyalty card.

But those loyalty cards themselves might be changing face too. Mobestream Media and its Key Ring Rewards Card mobile apps let users convert their physical loyalty cards into digital ones, creating a virtual wallet of sorts that can be used at checkout.

Also playing in the checkout space is TableTop Media, a company that provides a self-checkout solution called the Ziosk to restaurants. With it, users can simply swipe their credit card when they’re ready to leave. The device also features content and games that users can interact with during their meal.

While TableTop Media looks to make paying for a meal quicker (it says it saves about four minutes on average), Evil Genius Designs wants to make your waits in line more entertaining. The company has a series of interactive games (often branded for sponsors) that are shown on huge screens at amusement parks and other places where lengthy lines are common.

Other companies looking to change the way we shop included QR code scanning technology ScanBuy (whose technology is currently being used in a Gulf cleanup initiative) and location-based reward startups MotiveCast and WeReward.

Last but not least, Zazu is looking to revolutionize the alarm clock, using its mobile apps to greet users when they wake up with news, their schedules, weather and even traffic alerts, inserting ads for products along the way. You can see how it works in the video below:

Most of these companies share a common theme: providing consumers with an impulse to buy — whether in the form of coupons or other promotions — when they are (quite literally) close to the point of purchase. Of course, PepsiCo already has some of their own mobile initiatives underway, perhaps most notably its Pepsi Loot app, which rewards users for checking in to locations where Pepsi products are served.

New Social Media Plays

PepsiCo has garnered a lot of attention in the past year for some of its social media initiatives, like the Pepsi Refresh project (made possible in part by the company’s decision to forgo Super Bowl ads this year) and Dewmocracy, which let customers create a new flavor of Mountain Drew. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that the more social media-focused startups presenting devoted much of their pitches to ways PepsiCo could execute campaigns using their products.

Breakoutband and MyCypher looked to enhance Pepsi’s already-strong connection to the music world. The latter is a platform that enables aspiring hip-hop artists to use their mobile phones to record tracks and share them with friends. The former is a RockBand-meets-Facebook-type application that lets users create their own songs with friends, including the beats, lyrics and vocals. The company envisions hosting an NCAA Tournament-style challenge presented by Pepsi, in which bands compete against each other to advance.

Moving to sports –- where PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand is the focus –- FanFeedr offers a web and mobile application that lets sports fans track their favorite teams and athletes. The company sees tie-ins with Gatorade’s extensive roster of athlete endorsers, as well as the potential to help drive ticket sales to venues where Pepsi is served, by way of knowing which teams its users like.

Pixable also sees a potential partnership with Gatorade, using its app to aggregate photos from friends on Facebook and other services like Flickr and Picasa to create branded mosaics. Staying with Facebook, RealGifts, a fbFund company, wants to build a branded online store where virtual PepsiCo products can be given to friends and redeemed for the real thing.

Finally, with every brand now likely looking to emulate the success of Old Spice’s recent video campaign, Tongal presented its crowdsourced approach to creating viral video. The company’s platform allows brands to initiate contests in which creatives and producers compete to create the best viral videos for that brand.

Interactive Television and Video Advertising

Is television about to experience a revolution in so-called “second screen” experiences, fueled by the growth of mobile and tablet computers? That’s what a number of startups at PepsiCo10 were betting on.

Miso, a self-described “Foursquare for TV,” lets users check in to television shows and earn rewards and badges the more they do it. The company sees itself aligning with television programs and brands like PepsiCo –- something Foursquare is already doing to an extent with a number of its media partnerships.

Spot411 is also looking to add social elements to TV viewing on the second screen, except it identifies what’s playing by listening to the audio of the programming, effectively checking in users on its own. Certain keywords in the programming could then trigger brand integrations. We recently wrote about the company and its partnership with Fox Home Entertainment.

Taking a slightly different approach to social television is i.tv, which is looking to aggregate conversations happening around shows. What makes its technology unique is the ability to pinpoint exact points within a show and align them with the relevant tweets and status updates, letting users experience the same conversations no matter what time they watch. The company sees potential tie-ins with messages from sponsors; for instance, one of Gatorade’s sponsored athletes could be part of the conversation during sporting events.

Two other companies are approaching the video space from an advertising perspective. BizGreet lets advertisers customize video messages based on user information such as name and location, while Affine Systems has developed technology that can identify people, products and other objects within video, giving advertisers an easier way to customize their campaigns.

A New Model for Big Company Innovation?

Ultimately, Pepsi will choose 10 of these companies with which to launch pilot projects (hence the name PepsiCo10). What we find interesting about the program –- and part of the reason we got involved –- is because it completely flips the model we’ve seen in social media over the past couple years, where brands tend to latch onto emerging startups only once they’ve reached a certain scale (although that is starting to shift, as we’ve seen with all of the partnerships with location-based startups).

The food and beverage giant is trying to get in early via Pepsico10, while also giving startups a huge opportunity to develop proof of concepts that they can take to other brands. The company is essentially betting that a proactive approach –- coupled with its ongoing investments in the digital media space — will give it a leg up on competitors as the next Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare-like startups emerge.

It will obviously to take time to see if that model works, although a number of other big companies are trying similar initiatives. During the event, GE’s Global Director of Marketing Communications and Digital Linda Boff shared some details and early results from her company’s Ecomagination Challenge, which is investing $200 million into new energy technologies. Similar to PepsiCo10, which saw about 500 applications stream in for its competition, Boff spoke of the overwhelming response GE has received, both in terms of startup submissions and the conversation happening online around some of the ideas.

Clearly, the demand is there on the startup side for opportunities to work with big brands to accelerate their ideas. The question is whether those big brands can successfully shed the bureaucracy that can often hold innovation back and implement projects in the incredibly quick-moving social media and technology world –- many of which might fail, but could ultimately become huge wins and competitive advantages.

What do you think of the potential for partnerships between large companies and startups?

More About: advertising, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, mobile marketing, pepsico, pepsico10, QR Codes, social media, social media marketing, startups

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We’ve seen the poster, theatrical teaser and the first official trailer; now a brand new 60-second TV spot for David Fincher’s The Social Network has hit the web.

The film, which arrives in theaters October 1, is an account of the early days of Facebook, chronicling its foundation and rise to prominence. While the other teasers for the film have centered around the larger idea of Facebook and what it represents, this spot is all about the central figure of the film — Facebook’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

While the story is largely about events that precede the current debates over privacy and site ownership, Columbia Pictures hasn’t been afraid to weave the film itself into the overall discussion surrounding the service and what implications it has on how we communicate.

Ironically, of course, the movie about Facebook actually cannot be advertised on Facebook (not directly anyway), because using elements of Facebook’s branding in third-party advertisements is against its terms of service. However, that hasn’t stopped the studio from using Twitter to promote the film.

Oh, and as ScreenRant notes, this latest spot for the film includes Kanye West’s latest single, “Power.” I wonder if Zuckerberg & co. knew that when Mr. West visited Facebook HQ earlier this week.

What do you think of the latest spot for this film? Will you see The Social Network in theaters? Let us know!

More About: david fincher, facebook, facebook movie, Film, movie trailers, Movies, the social network

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Name: KnowPro

Quick Pitch: KnowPro apps helps people learn new topics, test for competence, or compete against friends or colleagues through social platforms.

Genius Idea: It’s no secret that the iPhone can be used as an educational resource, and KnowPro’s extensive lineup of tutorial-style iPhone apps demonstrates just how pocket-friendly and fun learning can be.

KnowPro has developed dozens of apps for practically any educational purpose. App categories cover subject matter such as animals, science, history, music, politics, business and pop culture.

In the science category, for instance, Board Review: Pharmacology is designed to help pharmacologists prepare for their board exam, Periodic Table of the Elements includes quiz questions on all 112 elements, and there’s even an app to help with preparation for the biology portion of the MCAT.

Each app tutors users by testing them with quiz questions. At the beginning of each randomized quiz, you can set how many questions you want to answer. Then, for each question, you’ll be presented with four possible answers. Get a question right and you’ll advance to the next question. Get a question wrong, and you’ll need to continue guessing until you get it right.

At the end of each quiz you can then publish your score to the service-wide leaderboard or publicly share it on Facebook or Twitter.

KnowPro’s selection of apps is impressive, so if there’s a particular subject matter you’d like to master, chances are a KnowPro app can help. The only downside is that each app comes at a price, with the more sophisticated tutorials costing as much as $6.99 apiece. Still, being able to use your iPhone in lieu of flashcards could make the expense worthwhile.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark 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.

[img credit: foundphotoslj]

More About: educational, iphone apps, knowpro

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Banksimple, a startup still in stealth mode, is that alternative. It’s not offering online banking, but “banking online.” The company is approaching the banking space in a whole new way and hoping to capitalize on the erosion of consumer trust in banks, as well as growing frustration about hidden and miscellaneous fees that are rampant in the industry.

The Banksimple formula is one that puts customers first and focuses on automatic, “worry-free” money management with a digital twist and penchant for social integration.

Alex Payne of Twitter API fame left the company he helped to grow to join Banksimple. We spoke to Payne about the startup’s bleeding edge approach to banking that we predict will be both controversial and groundbreaking. For now, Banksimple will remain closed to the public, but use this post as a primer for things to come.

A New Way to Bank

Banksimple is not a bank. Banksimple doesn’t hold its own bank charter; instead it works with FDIC insured banks that serve as the financial backbone for the platform. Customers, however, will have an entirely Banksimple-branded experience from the time they login and make their first deposit to each and every cash withdrawal they make at ATMs.

According to Payne, this approach allows the company to offer the best of both worlds and provide “a customer-friendly startup experience, while money sits with institutions that are solid.”

With Banksimple, customers will have one account and one debit card — whether it be a VISA or MasterCard has yet to be decided. The signup process will be relatively painless and require the user to make an initial transfer of money to setup their Banksimple account. From there on, Banksimple seeks to provide an automated banking experience with a flair for the unconventional, but the comfort of traditional serves like automatic deposits and bill payments.

There will be also be mobile apps for iPhone and Andriod that support electronic deposits.

Predictive Money Management

Part of Banksimple’s secret sauce is its predictive money management model. While users only need to concern themselves with a single account, there are actually checking, savings and credit accounts tied to that one login. Those will function behind-the-scenes with Banksimple automatically managing funds and transferring money between the accounts as needed.

This approach attempts to take the thinking out of banking for customers. Customers deposit funds, Banksimple does the rest to ensure that the most money is yielding the most interest at any given time. The predictive model knows how much money to keep for padding and can calculate how much money is safe to spend.

Social Media Meets Banking

The idea of connecting your bank account to Twitter and Facebook is likely just as scary as sharing your credit card purchases with the world, but Payne believes that Banksimple can use social integrations to simplify money transfers between social network friends.

To that purpose, Banksimple will support Facebook Connect and Twitter @Anywhere at launch. That’s just barely scratching the surface. Payne’s specialty is in API technology and he’s bringing that expertise to Banksimple with the intention of releasing a Banksimple API that will be both secure and powerful.

Third-party application developers will have the opportunity to tap into the bank accounts of Banksimple users, but only when permission is explicitly granted by the user. On that front, Payne has an aggressive attitude around security, pointing to his own background in information security.

In some ways, Payne’s vision around simple, friend-to-friend money transfers overlaps with the mobile payment purpose of services such as Venmo and Square, though with the API there’s also the opportunity for harmony in lieu of competition. Of course, as Twitter buddies, we’d certainly expect a partnership, and not a battle, between Payne and Jack Dorsey, the Founder of Square.

Fee-Free For Real

“You can’t trust banks to do the right thing,” Payne says. Payne speaks of banks as bad guys that knowingly deceive customers with hidden fees, overdraft charges and ATM fees. He believes he’s not alone in his contempt for these practices and points to similar responses found in the company’s pre-launch research efforts.

Banksimple promises fee-free banking, a mantra that extends to 50,000 plus ATMs in a initiative that the company has orchestrated to support fee-free withdrawals come launch time. It also means that Banksimple won’t charge overdraft fees.

Instead, the startup will take a percentage of interchange fees and net interest margins to monetize their service on day one. Both are standard sources of revenue for banks, the former of which is simply a percentage of the fee that businesses pay to credit card companies to process transactions. In the future, Banksimple also hopes to offer for-charge services around products designed to make customers’ financial lives easier.

The Zappos of Banks

Stellar customer service isn’t typically considered a revolutionary feature. Still, Zappos has gone a long way to prove that legendary customer service is worth the extra expense. Payne believes that Banksimple can apply a customer service focus, à la Zappos, to change the way people think about engaging with their bank.

“Customer service is key,” says Payne. “The technology is not rocket science, and other banks could do what we’re doing, but they don’t. We’ve built a pretty solid and clean user experience, but if the person on the phone can’t help you, that ruins everything.”

That’s why Banksimple is investing in a resource-heavy call center that will include trained professionals who will be available to all customers for any of their queries, free of charge. It’s an expensive undertaking, but a necessary one for the startup to stand out. Payne reiterates, “We want to keep people really happy.”

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Blip.tv
- Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Foursquare
- 10 Tips for Corporate Blogging
- 5 Lessons to Learn from Web Startups
- 11 Essential Online Resources for Consultants

[img credits: Daniel Y. Go, Leonard John Matthews, lowlevelrebel, and image courtesy of iStockphoto, Henrik5000]

More About: alex payne, banking, banks, banksimple, online banking, social media, startups, trending, twitter

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By now, many of us have seen the video of YouTube user Hungrybear9562 (a.k.a Paul Vasquez) freaking out over a super pretty rainbow — there are been remixes, interviews with Bear and even an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live (Kimmel helped Vasquez rocket to stardom after tweeting a link to the vid at the beginning of July). Yup. This video certainly was meme-tastic, and now it has a country rock cover befitting the soundtrack of some awesome ’70s movie about love and loss, like Harold and Maude.

This isn’t the first time Fallon has given a viral vid the Young treatment — he covered “Pants on the Ground” (remember that classic jam?) back in January. And now, for your Fridaze listening pleasure, here’s both of those jams. Fallon should seriously cut an album — his comedic skills are questionable, but I would totally listen to a disc of viral covers if I had a truck and nothing but the open road before me.

“Double Rainbow”

“Pants on the Ground”

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The app, which is the first from the Crown Publishing Group, uses the iPhone’s rear camera (there’s no support for the iPhone 4’s front-facing camera at this time) to “scan” the face of any would-be zombie to illustrate their infection rate.

The app is free and it’s a great idea, but the execution is a little flawed. For instance, you can’t adjust the zombie scan overlay after you’ve snapped an image (for better placement of eyes and nose, etc.), and you can’t load in pre-existing photographs.

That means that unless you are able to get someone’s face into the exact position of the scanner, the effect doesn’t work very well.

Nevertheless, we like that you can share your photos via e-mail or post them to Facebook. And we have to give props to Crown Publishing for using an iPhone app as a way to promote one of its books.

Are any of your friends or family members zombies in disguise? Let us know.

[via Mediabistro]

More About: iphone apps, MARKETING, zombie survival guide, zombies

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The latest version of Google’s 3D map application, Google Earth, now has the ability to display real-time rain and snow in certain parts of the world.

To see it, you must first enable the clouds layer, and then zoom in to a location where it’s raining or snowing. Google Earth displays rain and snow only in certain parts of North America and Europe; to see where exactly the new feature is available, enable the radar layer.

The weather simulation adds another layer of coolness to the already mesmerizing Google Earth application. Since it displays rain and snow in real time, the feature can actually be useful as a precise visualization of what weather is like in a certain place. It may, however, render all of those weather-related chats you have with friends and relatives over the phone even more meaningless.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on when this feature might be enabled in other parts of the world.

More About: 3D, google earth, Map, Weather

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Social media monitoring service Row Feeder took a look at the volume and types of tweets, as well as Facebook posts, before, during and after the television event to put together the infographic below.

Twitter was the primary platform of choice for social expression, with peak activity bubbling up to 16,000 tweets per hour at 10:00 p.m ET. But, by the time the show premiered in the West, buzz had already died down significantly. According to Row Feeder’s calculations, Jersey and New York were the primary hotbeds of social activity.

Did you partake in the Jersey Shore Twitterfest? Tell us why in the comments.

[img credit: MTV]

More About: facebook, infographic, jersey shore, mtv, tv, twitter

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Google Is Going into Gaming

Google is going into social gaming in attempt to win over some of the ad dollars that have gone to social networking sites, sources familiar with the matter have told The Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly been in talks with top developers like Playdom Inc., which was acquired by Disney this week, as well as Electronic Arts’s Playfish and FarmVille creator Zynga.

Checkins Coming to Google

In further Google news, the company has indicated that it is working with developers to bring checkins to location-based applications via its Places API. Google Places is the new version of the company’s Local Business Center, designed to help local business owners gain an edge in search engine marketing.

Facebook May Put Off IPO Until 2012

Three sources have informed Bloomberg that Facebook may postpone its initial public offering until 2012. “At some point along the path, I think it’ll make sense to have an IPO. But we’re not running the company to do that. We’re running the company to serve more people,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told ABC’s Diane Sawyer recently.

Spotify’s U.S. Launch Faces Further Delays

Negotiations between free music streaming service Spotify and U.S. record labels are faring none-too-well; the company is reportedly “back to square one.” The startup is still aiming for a late 2010/early 2011 launch in the U.S.

Further News

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company is hard at work making Windows 7 a great OS for tablets; Redbox is adding Blu-ray rentals to its kiosks [via Variety]; Samsung confirms it will the Galaxy S smartphone will get Froyo in September [via Engadget]; and Google dispelled rumors that it was fully blocked in China.

Disclosure: Microsoft is a Mashable sponsor.

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

More About: facebook, facebook ipo, first to know series, geolocation, Google, google places, spotify

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always been very careful on the subject. “At some point along the path, I think it’ll make sense to have an IPO. But we’re not running the company to do that. We’re running the company to serve more people,” he said in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer recently.

Facebook’s IPO has been one of the burning topics in business circles over the last couple of years. With the company’s revenue (and valuation) rising swiftly, Facebook is poised to become the next Google, whose initial public offering in 2004 was wildly successful; the company has increased its market capitalization fivefold since then.

Despite the pressure to go public, Facebook’s IPO seems to be pushed further into the future every year. The wait, however, will give 26-year-old Zuckerberg more time to gain more users, sort out the privacy issues that have been plaguing Facebook and, most importantly, boost sales and increase earnings.

More About: facebook, ipo, trending

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Speaking to analysts on Thursday, Ballmer said Microsoft is hard at work to make Windows 7 a great OS for tablets. “We have got to make things happen. We’re in the process of doing that as we speak. We’re working with our hardware partners. We’re tuning Windows 7,” he said.

Ballmer also recognized the success of Apple’s iPad, saying the company has “sold certainly more than I’d like them to have sold.” However, at a later Q&A session he took a jab at one of iPad’s drawbacks. “When you get your Windows 7 machine, it will print. Some people actually like to print every now and then,” he said.

Ballmer is right: printing on iPad is a problem. But Microsoft might encounter far more problems adapting Windows 7 for tablets. Apple’s iOS was designed for a touch screen device from grounds up, while Windows 7 was primarily created with a regular keyboard-and-mouse-equipped PC in mind. And while Windows 7 was a clear win compared to the disaster that was Vista, Microsoft’s track record of late – remember Kin? – tells us that a great Windows 7 tablet, while not an impossibility, might not be right around the corner just yet.

[via CNET]

More About: microsoft, Steve Ballmer, tablets, Windows

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Name: slydial

Quick Pitch: slydial is a free voice messaging service which connects you directly to someone’s mobile voicemail.

Genius Idea: If you’ve ever dreaded making a phone call and anxiously wished for a voicemail greeting as you dialed, you know exactly why this app is a genius idea. It strips away the awkwardness of a voice-to-voice call while still letting you claim to have attempted direct communication.

How perfectly passive-aggressive! We can imagine this app going over well for:

• Breakups,
• Firings,
• The-morning-after apologies,
• Stalling on or avoiding a meetup,
• Making excuses to a boss,
• “Duty” calls to chatty friends and relatives,
• “Just touching base” reminder/nagging calls,
• 3 a.m. calls that don’t need to be wake-up calls, as well,
• And ever so much more.

Essentially, the app “creates the illusion of communication” without making you actually have to listen to other people, play politics or hear someone else’s side of an argument. In theory, it works just as well for the incurable narcissist as for the cripplingly antisocial.

Before you protest, it’s true that slydial isn’t the Gandhi of applications. But it plays into a powerful part of the human psyche: Our desire to avoid conflict. The makers of slydial have paved the path of least resistance beautifully, and we can imagine that quite a few people will be traipsing down that path in the months to come.

To use slydial, which is free and audio-add supported, just dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) and enter the mobile number of the person you want to leave a voicemail. You can also try slydial’s mobile apps, which include offerings for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

We gave slydial a try, and it worked just as promised; the other person’s phone didn’t so much as twitch while slydial connected me to the voicemail box in question.

What do you think of this app? It is something you’d use when you don’t have the personal fortitude or wherewithal to make voice-to-voice contact?

[img credit: djou]

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark 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 platform for 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).”

More About: App, Mobile 2.0, slydial, voicemail

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A few WordPress superstars have teamed up to create WPEngine, a new and very exciting platform that promises to do all of the above and more.

WordPress has become the killer platform for many bloggers, small businesses and developers/consultants with multiple clients.

However, there’s a middle ground between a WordPress.com blog and a hosted WordPress site that a few apps are attempting to cover. This middle ground includes people who don’t have the technical skills of a WordPress developer or even a website administrator but who still want to take advantage of a greater part of the WordPress ecosystem of plugins and other benefits.

About the Product

WPEngine offers a WordPress VIP-type experience for smaller-scale websites, and it includes top-notch support, one-click backups, optimization for speed and scalability, and security features that include automatic software upgrades. Also, you’ll be able to use any WordPress plugins, themes, custom CSS or JavaScript you like.

The platform gives users a set of specially curated plugins that have been vetted for security and have the WP Engine team’s absolute recommendation. “If there is a plugin that isn’t in our list,” reads the site, “you should feel empowered to use it anyway.”

Most of all, WPEngine promises its users simplicity and a seamless transition and integration experience.

The platform seems like it will work for bloggers, for businesses, and also for small dev shops that need to keep an eye on several WordPress-based sites.

About the Team

While the product sounds fabulous and, indeed, just what the WordPress ecosystem needs, product is only part of what makes a good startup; the company also needs to have a great team. WPEngine was developed by Aaron Brazell, a well-known figure in the WordPress universe who authored The WordPress Bible; blogger and developer Jason Cohen; and Cullen Wilson, an Austin-based developer. The startup is also under the wing of Ben Metcalfe, who has made a habit of picking good bets in the startup world. His last pick, NutShell Mail, experienced the Silicon Valley version of a Cinderella story and was acquired recently by Constant Contact. Altogether, it’s a bit of a dream team for a WordPress product.

Finally, the platform got the following 140-character thumbs-up from WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg this afternoon: “I think it’s a nice complement to first-party solutions, especially for businesses that use [WordPress] as a CMS.”

About Signup and Migration

We talked a bit with some of the WP Engine team today about migrating blogs — including themes, customized TypeKit fonts, comments and more — over to the WP Engine platform, and it’s a process we’re eager to test. We’ll be trying it out soon, and we will report back on the results.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more, sign up for WPEngine’s beta program. The platform will be open to the public very soon. You can test the platform for 15 days free of charge, and it costs $50 per month thereafter. There are no contracts, and you’re free to move your blog elsewhere at any time.

What do you think so far? Is this something you’d be interested in trying? Do you think it will be useful for businesses and WordPress developers? Let us know in the comments.

More About: aaron brazell, ben metcalfe, Wordpress, wpengine

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New research from mobile web optimization firm Bytemobile shows that more and more of us are making demands of our devices, our mobile carriers, and video-hosting sites such as YouTube by consuming large amounts of video content on our phones. Our video consumption tends to peak around 10 p.m., at which point bandwidth takes a nosedive and stalling cripples our viewing experience.

In other words, we get the worst possible experience exactly when we want most to have a good experience.

This viewing experience is even worse when videos aren’t optimized for mobile devices. In these cases, for a 60-second video, the average viewer on a 3G network connection would have to deal with around 10 seconds of stalling.

Video optimization, the report said, can reduce stalling to almost zero seconds per minute of video.

End users have been dealing with stalling by choosing to view lower-quality videos in exchange for faster load times. Around 95% of mobile video viewers watch at resolutions between 176×144 and 640×480. Less than half a percent of mobile video viewers are watching what could be considered high-quality videos.

According to these findings, Flash is by far the most popular mobile video format, accounting for a full 90% of total video traffic. That’s one strike against Apple’s no-Flash marching orders. Another is the stats on adult content; four of the top 10 video sites accessed from mobile phones contain only adult content. So much for “freedom from porn.”

However, even when you include adult content sites, YouTube is the most popular video content site, accounting for 36% of mobile views. A distant second is Google Video, which grabs just 6% of mobile video views.

If you watch videos on your phone, do these finding match up with your viewing experiences?

[img credit: larskflem]

More About: Mobile 2.0, mobile video, report, stats, video

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According to Billboard, Spotify’s negotiations with U.S. record labels have broken down and are “back to square one.” Apparently, the startup is still aiming for a 2010/early 2011 U.S. launch, but there’s no telling how long label negotiations could take or if they will be successful at all.

When we last heard from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek at SXSW 2010, he projected a Q3 U.S. launch and the unveiling of several new mobile applications. And while the service’s social and music features just keep getting better, the company is actually farther from a U.S. debut than they were this spring.

In Europe, Spotify operates under a freemium model. Users can get unlimited streaming music in an ad-supported interface. Users can also choose to pay for an ad-free experience that also includes mobile access. But elements of this model have been sources of contention for the major record labels stateside, notably Warner Music Group, according to Billboard’s sources.

In the meantime, Spotify competitors abound — Pandora in particular stands out as having been able to navigate political and record-label hurdles to keep itself operational and profitable. And Google and Apple are both rumored to be working on streaming music solutions, too.

Perhaps the larger question is whether American music lovers will still care about Spotify once it finally comes to our shores… if, indeed, it ever makes it here.

What do you think: Will Spotify’s leadership be able to play nicely with American record labels and launch their highly anticipated app in the U.S. this year? How about next year? Feel free to share your speculations in the comments.

More About: music, spotify, Warner

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