Linking the Real World to the Web: 3 Emerging Technologies Compared. Hamilton Chan is CEO of Paperlinks and Paperspring. Through its iPhone app (previously featured as the #1 New & Noteworthy free app in the iTunes store) and QR web platform, Paperlinks makes context sensitive marketing plug-and-play for small, medium and large businesses. No longer tied to a desktop browser, we now demand access to a broad range of information anytime and anywhere via our smartphones. This has created the opportunity for new technologies to facilitate our connections between the physical world and the digital one. Where there were hyperlinks in monitors to provide us information, now there are "real world links," jump-points like billboard QR codes that are embedded in our daily surroundings, linking us to context-sensitive web content. QR codes, NFC and visual recognition technology each pose individual advantages and shortcomings that the savvy marketer must understand in order to leverage them properly.
Quick Response (QR) Codes Near Field Communication (NFC) Tags. Lego Antikythera Mechanism. Lead-Gen Startup Integrate Nabs $4.25M Series A from Foundry Group. Integrate, a startup with a performance-based marketing platform that includes lead exchange and SEM (search engine marketing), has just closed a Series A round of funding from Foundry Group. The funding, which comes to $4.25 million, is a no-brainer for the Foundry Group, an early-stage VC firm based in Boulder, CO.
“Foundry Group believes there is a large need and desire for performance-based marketing," said Foundry Group managing partner Seth Levine. "We think there is a huge swing to performance marketing, and Integrate provides the technology needed to make it succeed. " Integrate’s platform is all about performance and transparency; its customers only pay for qualified leads and conversions — that could mean a sale or a phone call, depending on the type of campaign.
Advertisers and publishers work together and communicate through Integrate's platform, where each party can review important information about the other party's business. Image courtesy of Flickr, daviddmuir. Top 10 Movies for the Modern Tech Geek. The Digital Entertainment Series is supported by the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10, the seriously entertaining smartphone that knows how to have fun. Check it out here. It's a great time to be a tech geek with a love for the cinema. Not only is film technology evolving at a breakneck pace, the subject matter for films is also targeting tech audiences in a more nuanced, fulfilling way. The gaze in which technology enthusiasts are portrayed in film has changed too. The archetype of the "hacker" or "computer enthusiast" is still here, but in the best films, that archetype has evolved. We set out to make a list that represents the current landscape of the film industry and technology. You won't find films like War Games, Hackers, The Matrix or The Net on this list.
In no particular order, here are 10 of the best movies for modern tech enthusiasts. 1. Twenty-eight years later, the technical reception for TRON: Legacy is quite different. Photo Credit: Walt Disney Studios 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 8. 9. "The Onion's" Fake Sports Site Launches on Comedy Central. Satirical mastermind and cultural lampooner, The Onion, has just launched a brand new website for SportsDome, its funny/fake sports web show. The site is a collaboration with Comedy Central, which will be turning the web show into a television show in January. Anyone familiar with the SportsDome's current website won't feel too out of place at the new site. The site features clips from the show, clips from The Onion's video vault, extended interviews, a "photo finish" picture section and additional resources much like the websites for The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.
What distinguishes the SportsDome site from its new cohort is how the website functions as an extension of the show. Both The Onion and Comedy Central expressed that the site was meant to extend the made-up universe of SportsDome online, rather than just acting as a landing page. One interesting piece of tech is that the site will be hosted on The Onion while Comedy Central will be providing the video technology. 4 Top Employers for Social Media Professionals. As an increasingly important and growing industry, it naturally follows that social media is a growing career field as clued-in companies look to the social space to better communicate with their colleagues, customers and clients. We've taken a look at some of the top companies that are great for social media-savvy professionals. Here are our top four picks, complete with insightful Q&As from key staff within the organizations.
Whether you're interested in social media as a career choice, or you'd like to know how you can offer a similar environment for digital natives to prosper in your company, read on. And as always, have your say in the comments below. 1. After a company-wide audit in 2009, Adobe established a dedicated social media team, adopting a "hub and spoke model," or Center of Excellence (CoE). Adobe's corporate social media team is made up of four members. Adobe clearly has a sound social media structure in place throughout its global operations. 2. "One word: Empowerment. MTV Launches Music Discovery Tool for Up-and-Coming Bands. MTV launched into the music discovery space today with the unveiling of its MTV Music Meter, which provides music lovers with news and info about up-and-coming acts. Yes, you heard that correctly — up-and-coming musicians, not Justin Bieber nor Lady Gaga (those artists have actually been excluded from the site).
For this project, MTV worked with music intelligence company EchoNest to develop an algorithm that combs through blogs, social media, video and more traditional metrics (like radio plays and sales) to determine which bands are receiving the most attention on any given day. Fans can click on any band to listen to 30-second sections of songs (via Rhapsody), watch music videos, see photos, read tweets about that artist as well as news and bios, and find bands that are similar to the artist in question. Users can also search for any artist — even those who aren't all that buzzy — and delve into news, music and check out artists of the same ilk. Hands-on: CNN’s Stunning New iPad App [PICS] CNN's highly visual new iPad app hit the App Store on Tuesday morning, bringing many of the media company's best-known products — including all of its articles and videos from CNN.com, as well as live breaking news video coverage and hourly radio updates — to the iPad for free.
Unlike the iPad apps of most other publications, CNN's app [iTunes link] replicates neither the format of its website nor a newspaper layout. Instead, users are drawn to headlines laid upon enlarged thumbnails to explore different kinds of content — sports is juxtaposed against tech, which is sandwiched between stories on finance and government policy — although they also have the option to browse by section and headline in a text-only format as well. "We've really worked to make this thing feel like it was meant for the iPad," said KC Estenson, SVP and general manager of CNN.com. "It looks unlike any other thing that we've built. CNN's app is, in my opinion, the best app from a single news source to date. 5 New Online Services Perfect for Small Businesses.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. When you think of online destinations for professional purposes, social networking sites tailored toward business users — like LinkedIn — probably come to mind. Savvy small business professionals will find, however, that a crop of new startups offer them access to fresh technologies that help with professional networking, research, influence and community building. While you've likely never heard of the startups listed below, each is gaining traction from early adopter audiences and is building consumer-facing products easily applied to common small business tasks. Some, especially Stipple and Marginize, could even help improve traffic to your site and engage visitors longer with more compelling reasons to stay put. 1.
If you're looking for a new way to stay networked in today's digital world, check out Hashable. 2. The Most Powerful Tweets of 2010 According to Twitter. Netflix Looking for Facebook-Savvy Engineer. Nokia Plans Complete Overhaul of Symbian in 2011. Nokia's busy roadmap for 2011 includes the possibility of a dual-core smartphone and several upgrades to the Symbian mobile platform, Computerworld reports. On Tuesday, during the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, Nokia gave a presentation highlighting some much-needed upgrades to Symbian, many of which are slated to come in the first quarter of 2011, including improvements to the browser's user interface. Next in line for Symbian, coming during Q2 and Q3 2011, is "a new look and feel for the user interface, a more flexible home screen, an updateable HTML5 browser and an easier software update experience," according to one of Nokia's slides. On the hardware side, Nokia plans to release models with 1GHz CPUs (Nokia's current flagship smartphone, the N8, sports a 680 MHz CPU) and more graphics memory in the second and third quarter.
First models with dual-core CPUs and a "true zoom camera" should be arriving at the end of 2011 or in the first quarter of 2012. Google Home Page Promotes Demo Slam. Google is using its home page today to promote Demo Slam, a site where would-be filmmakers can square off against each other to show off the company's various technologies. The site was announced about a month ago with a soft launch. "We spend our time making a whole bunch of technologies that are free for the world, but a lot of people don't know about them. And that kind of sucks," reads a Google site explaining Demo Slam . "So, we thought organizing the world's most creative tech demo battle would be a great way to help spread the word and teach people about tech.
Such filmmakers can try to get into Demo Slam by submitting a video to YouTube. One Slam pits Google Search by Voice against Google Goggles. Google isn't offering any prizes to the winners aside from exposure. Julian Assange Goes Free on Bail. Met with cheers from inside and outside the court, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Tuesday, with conditions that include a curfew, an electronic tag and surrendering his passport. Assange will be released on $310,000 bail until the next hearing in his case, set for January 11. Still, according to the Guardian's live blog (a still ongoing melange of tweets and other scattered tidbits), "Swedish prosecutors plan to launch an appeal against the decision to grant Assange bail.
They have two hours to do lodge an appeal. Assange will not be freed until that process is over. " The 39-year-old Australian has been in a London prison for a week now, after being arrested on an arrest warrant from Sweden, where Assange is accused of sexual crimes. Assange was recently placed on Interpol's wanted list.
Assange surrendered himself to the police, stating earlier that he had agreed to meet with the UK police in regards to the outstanding warrant and rape accusations in Sweden. New Widgets Let Any Website Offer Local Shopping Options. Local shopping engine Wishpond has launched three customizable widgets for publishers, brands, and merchants that will instantly give sites that embed them a local commerce offering. A fashion blogger, for instance, might embed a widget with a product field pre-populated so that readers can find local merchants for a specific item nearby. Brands can embed a widget that allows site users to find their product at local merchants, and merchants can use the widget to allow customers to search its inventory.
The widgets are also compatible with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, iGoogle, LinkedIn, and Ning (on Facebook and Twitter, a link opens to the widget). The move will help Wishpond differentiate itself from a growing number of services like shoplocal.com and TheFind Local that help connect shoppers with local merchants, as well as larger companies like eBay and Google, that have expressed an interest in local shopping. Try out the widgets here. Visa Brings Local Deals to iPhone. Visa has announced that its official iPhone application is available for free in the iTunes App Store. It's completely in step with other popular consumer apps, as it's heavy on deals and location-based technology. Each user automatically receives customized offers, which are stored in the app and can be redeemed online or in brick-and-mortar stores. The app [iTunes link] gives its users a handy map and directions for locating retail outlets where they can redeem their offers, and it will also help Visa cardholders find nearby ATMs.
At launch, Visa is working with about 50 hand-picked retailers to bring special deals to Visa account holders via the Visa iPhone app. Participating merchants currently include 24 Hour Fitness, Meineke, New York & Company, Holiday Inn, Hard Rock Café and Zales. And account holders with Visa Signature cards will get extra special offers in addition to the offers available to all Visa account holders. What do you think of Visa's iPhone app at the outset? LinkedIn Reveals the 10 Most Overused Job-Hunter Buzzwords. LinkedIn has just posted the 10 most overused, tired and trite buzzwords that get slapped onto resumes and professional profiles around the U.S. and 11 other countries.
According to our LinkedIn profiles, a great many of us tend to describe ourselves as motivated team players with extensive experience. Ironically, "innovative" is the second-most clichéd word found in LinkedIn profiles. You'd think we'd be able to be more innovative with our vocabularies, no? Sadly, those of you who took a more creative approach to describing yourselves have been penalized in the past as well. All the LinkedIn "ninjas" got called out earlier this year along with "evangelists" and "gurus" for using these rising menaces of career-oriented buzzwords.
Still, the most common words in LinkedIn profiles are less flashy and more conservative. Linking the Real World to the Web: 3 Emerging Technologies Compared. Mozilla's Creative Genius Seeks to Transform Health Care with New Startup. Chevy Volt Electric Cars Hit the Streets. Yahoo to Lay Off 5% of Staff [RUMOR] QR Code Scavenger Hunt Offers Ford Fiesta as Prize. 100+ Upcoming Social Media and Tech Events. The First iAd for iPad Has Arrived [PIC] How a Niche Shopping Site Plans to Transform Local Economies [INVITES] So You Got an Android Device This Holiday Season: Now What? 10 Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile [PICS] Google, Chrome OS and the Big Picture. GoDaddy Super Bowl Ad to Hype .Co Domains. Multiple Gmail Accounts Just Got a Lot Easier to Manage.
“The Social Network” Nominated for 6 Golden Globes Including “Best Picture” Gmail Now Allows Users to Restore Contacts List. Giveaway: Win a Holiday MashPack With 19 Tech Prizes & Kobo eReader. Facebook Reveals Top Status Trends of 2010. JCPenney Sets Up Shop on Facebook. Google Voice Arrives on iPad & iPod Touch. Introducing Mashable's Senior Editor: Charlie White. Google Voice Search Now Learns From Your Speech Patterns.