Mashable!

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• HOW TO: Copy the Entire iTunes Catalogue in 25 Seconds
• Bing Ads Warn About Online Scams
• 80legs: Web Crawling Isn't Just for Google Anymore
• Facebook Releases Free Tool for Translating Your Site
• Leaked Microsoft Courier Footage Is Hot [VIDEO]
• Top 10 Dancing Babies on YouTube
• World Domination: Facebook Looks to End Orkut's Hold on Brazil
• STUDY: 80% of Twitter Users Are All About Me
• Dropbox for iPhone Is Out (and Awesome)
• Cops Behaving Badly: Officer Resigns Over Racist Facebook Video
• The NHL's Latest Social Media Push: A Twitter Contest
• Create Your Own Building for the Biggest Monopoly Game Ever
• Internet Art: Craigslist Missed Connections Become Gorgeous Visuals
• Google Wave Invites: How To Get Them
• 3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand
• Texas Tech Football Coach Calls Twitter Users Narcissists
• Microsoft Releases Free Anti-Virus Software
• Online Retailers: 99% Plan to Have Facebook Fan Pages
• Smarter Transportation: 10 Social Media Tools to Navigate Your City
• RUMOR: Apple Tablet Is an iPhone with a 10.7″ Screen
• Google Wave: The Wait Is Almost Over
• DEAL: Warner Music Artists Return to YouTube
• New England Patriots Choose Facebook as Primary Social Media Hub
• Tungle Helps Schedule Meetings Across the Desktop, Web, and iPhone

HOW TO: Copy the Entire iTunes Catalogue in 25 Seconds Posted: 30 Sep 2009 04:57 AM PDT Answer: easy, if you're a brilliant scientist and have access to the kind of technology available to the folks at Bell Labs. They've broken the optical data transmission record, crossing the 100 petabit per second.kilometer barrier. More precisely, they've transfered 15.5 terabits of data per second over the distance of 7,000 kilometers. To do this, the researchers from the Bell Labs facility in Villarceaux, France have used 155 lasers, each operating at a different frequency and carrying 100 gigabits of data per second. Multiply the number of lasers with the transmission rate, and you get a crazy number of 15.5 terabits per second, over the distance of 7000 kilometers. Multiply those two numbers, and you get over 100 petabits per second.kilometers (a standard measure for high speed optical transmission). To make all these silly numbers more understandable, I've applied a little math to it. The iTunes Store holds some 10 million songs. The average size of a song on iTunes is roughly 5 megabytes. So, the entire iTunes catalogue is about 50 million megabytes, or 47.6 terabytes heavy. Now, turning that number of 15.5 terabits per second into terabytes, we get roughly 1.9 terabytes per second, meaning that it would take around 25 seconds (47.6 / 1.9 = 25) to transfer the entire iTunes catalogue over the distance of 7000 km. The calculations are rough: give or take a second or two, if you must, but it's still mind-boggingly fast, especially for us mere mortals, used to WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet at best. Of course, it'll take quite a bit of time before we see such transfer speeds in real-life use, but it's impressive nonetheless. Here's a scary thought: one day, we'll be able to copy more music than it's possible to listen to in a lifetime in a matter of seconds. To find out the technical nitty-gritty about this achievement, check out the official press release. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Eraxion Reviews: Multiply, iStockphoto Tags: Bell Labs, data transmission, itunes

Bing Ads Warn About Online Scams Posted: 30 Sep 2009 02:11 AM PDT If you're looking for information on how to fix your credit score through Microsoft's search engine Bing, you might get warned that many of the links you'll encounter are, in fact, scams. It's a new campaign devised to protect users from getting scammed; Microsoft worked with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Postal Inspection Service, and Western Union to provide public service announcements (PSAs) in the form of ads on Bing results pages. The ads should appear for relevant keywords only; I've tried about a dozen different combinations, and haven't seen them, but it could be because I'm not located in the USA. You should see them if you're looking for foreclosure rescue, lottery, and fixing credit problems. If you click on one, you'll land on trade commission or Microsoft Web pages containing advice about avoiding online scams. The initiative might move to other search engines, too. "We'll encourage other search engines to follow Microsoft's lead and use PSAs to help their users avoid scams," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC bureau of consumer protection. Be that as it may, this is another move by Microsoft that shows they're serious about grabbing more of that search market share, something they've been surprisingly good at so far. Tags: ads, bing, microsoft, scams

80legs: Web Crawling Isn't Just for Google Anymore Posted: 30 Sep 2009 12:05 AM PDT This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: 80Legs Quick Pitch: 80legs is a web crawling and processing service that puts the power of 50,000 computers to use at a fraction of the cost. Genius Idea: Web crawlers. Spiders. Indexing. They are all essential aspects of not only web searches, but of simply scouring the web for information. Without crawling, we wouldn't have updated information on our favorite websites or search engines at all. Web crawling's not a simple business though, which is why Google spends millions per year on the task. Not a lot of small businesses can afford the price of crawling billions of web pages, although they could really use that type of information. 80Legs, which launched last week at the DEMO Conference, claims to democratize web crawling and make it effective and affordable to the small business and the entrepreneur, not just to the Googles and Bings of the world. Using the interface is dead simple. Just pick where you want 80legs to crawl and set what you'd like it to find. Of course, there are a wide range of features for customizing your crawls as well, including changing the depth level, the number of URLs to crawl, the type of pages to analyze, whether to crawl outgoing links, and much more. Once you've finished crawling, you'll get the data that overviews the results of your crawl. Once you get past web crawling's association with search, it's easy to understand the implications of cheap, accessible web crawling. You can search large websites for updates, run a media or research analysis of billions of web pages. And of course, you can build your search engine. So here's the big question mark: what's the cost? The answer: not much at all. Indeed it's affordable for small businesses, at a price of $2 per million pages crawled plus $0.03 per CPU-hour used. To crawl a billion pages, it would cost you $1000 plus the cost of the CPU hours. Considering the information you'll get, it's a good deal. Crawling the web has never been so easy. Spark of Genius Series 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)." Reviews: Google, PHP Tags: 80Legs, bizspark, demo

Facebook Releases Free Tool for Translating Your Site Posted: 29 Sep 2009 10:12 PM PDT Facebook is announcing a new tool, Translations for Facebook Connect, that will tap into the wisdom of the crowd to help webmasters and site owners translate their websites and applications for an international audience. The technology is based on the same solution Facebook developed for itself when it decided to make the site available in multiple language. The Translations application launched in January 2008 to great success, as volunteers around the globe chipped in to translate Facebook into more than 65 languages. Translations for Facebook Connect will be released as a free tool for developers. The framework can be used to translate sites into any of the languages Facebook supports — including, of course, Pirate (check out the complete list here). Once enabled, the tool will display content in a visitor's native language if they log in using Facebook Connect. For all the technical details on how to implement the new framework, head on over to the Facebook Developer Wiki. What do you think: is Facebook Connect Translations a brilliant way to distribute a huge task, or is Facebook taking advantage of the free labor of the crowds? Let us know in the comments. Reviews: Facebook Tags: crowdsourcing, facebook, facebook connect, languages, translation, Web Development

Leaked Microsoft Courier Footage Is Hot [VIDEO] Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:11 PM PDT We've waxed poetic about Apple's mythical Tablet recently (and even seen some more evidence to support it). But Microsoft, too, has a rather attractive looking tablet-like device in the speculative stages as well: the Courier. Now, a leaked video of the Courier's user interface sheds more light on some of the design aesthetic behind this still unconfirmed device that appears to be part tablet and part digital planner, with a dual-screen hinged design and pen and finger controls. In the video, unearthed by Gizmodo, we see a very fluid interface where any item can be drag and dropped easily. The overarching metaphor is apparently dubbed the "infinite journal," where items can be clipped and stored from the web, annotated and highlighted, moved around, and modified with a palette of drawing and design tools. An on-board camera handles bringing in visuals and documents from the physical world as well. Everything is searchable for later retrieval, with a Courier Pen handling text input duties. Of course the device overall is a touchscreen, and designed with finger control and gestures in mind as well. Easy Publishing, But No Apps? According to the video, publishing from your Infinite Journal is easy, with pages and sections exporting to Courier files, Powerpoint presentations, or PDFs. And according to Mary-Jo Foley, the device will run Windows 7 … but not be able to install Windows 7 applications. Say what? Yep — apparently that's because someone up high thinks the first generation of Microsoft Tablets failed because the apps weren't specific to the form factor. There could be some truth in there but still — we hope for Microsoft's sake they come up with a better alternative app store than what they've done with the Zune HD to-date. Check out the video below and let us know what you think: are you sweating this device? Which interests you more: the mythical Apple Tablet, or the mythical Microsoft Courier? Image above courtesy of Gizmodo Tags: microsoft, microsoft courier, Tablet, tablet pc, Windows 7

Top 10 Dancing Babies on YouTube Posted: 29 Sep 2009 07:42 PM PDT There are viral videos, and then there are viral videos. Such is the power of this baby dancing to Beyonce that recently saw new life and keeps on giving. From there, this Top 10 list was inevitable. Someone had to do it, people. So for your daily dose of internet edification, we hereby present the Top 10 Dancing Babies list. We've surely missed some other great ones though, so share your own favorite dancing babies in the comments, please! 10. Ava's Single Ladies What, you thought this baby had the corner on Single Ladies performed by infants? Check out an even wigglier toddler getting down to Beyonce's hit single. 9. Formal Baby Dancer Not only can you dress this kid up, you can take him out for a night on the dance floor. 8. Beatbox Baby This video is up for "Best Father and Son Beatbox Duet" for sure. 7. Belly Dancing Baby What this kid may lack in technique he makes up for in enthusiasm. 6. Shakira's Hips Don't Lie Shakira could probably learn a trick or two from this little gal. This vid is up for the "Best Use of Playpen as a Prop" award. 5. Samba Baby Admit it: this baby actually has better timing than most of us. 4. RiverDance Baby Watch your back, Michael Flatley! 3. Hip-Hop Kid They grow up so fast these days — it's a tough world out there! 2. Baby Billie Jean This remix of Evian's original Roller Babies video campaign wins because a) we like remixes and b) we like Michael Jackson. We have to admit though, on any given watching we can't decide between "cool" and "creepy." Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 1. Baby Break Dancer This wins because we've never been flexible enough to pull this stuff off at any age. See Also: Top 10 YouTube Fails Tags: dancing babies, internet memes, video, youtube

World Domination: Facebook Looks to End Orkut's Hold on Brazil Posted: 29 Sep 2009 07:40 PM PDT If social networking were like a game of Risk, just about every country on the board would be heavily occupied by navy blue Facebook game pieces by now. While already thoroughly dominating the US, the site has added support for dozens of languages, and is now the most popular social network in most of Europe, with strong growth in Asia and South America too. But one major market where Facebook is still significantly trailing is Brazil, where Google's Orkut remains one of the most popular sites overall in the country (#2 according to Alexa; Facebook is #25). Now, Facebook is making a move to end that run, launching a tool to help users find their Orkut friends that are already on Facebook. The feature is similar to the contact importer that Facebook offers US users that allow them to find Gmail, AIM, and Windows Live Messenger contacts that are already on the social network. These tools make it much easier for new users to get started and build out their social graph – the nuts and bolts of Facebook. Facebook's Brazilian users are being greeted by a message about the Orkut import tool atop their homepages, and it works like you'd expect. Login to Orkut, download your contacts then re-upload them to Facebook, and it will tell you which of your Orkut friends also have Facebook accounts and quickly let you send friend requests to them. Orkut users are already starting to discuss the new feature on Twitter – though most of the chatter is in Portuguese (translations appreciated!). Obviously though, the move sets the stage for Facebook to grow quickly in Brazil, assuming users take to it the way they have in other countries. It's also worth noting that Facebook has only been available in Portuguese for a little over a year, so Orkut has had a big head start in the country. Are the days of regionally successful social networks like Orkut (and Friendster in Southeast Asia) bound to come to an end at the behest of Facebook? Share your thoughts in the comments. [thanks @crisdias for the tip] Reviews: Facebook, Friendster, Gmail, Orkut, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, aim Tags: facebook, orkut, social networking

STUDY: 80% of Twitter Users Are All About Me Posted: 29 Sep 2009 06:48 PM PDT Rutgers University Professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase set out to analyze the content and characteristics of social media activity. They dubbed communications systems like Facebook and Twitter, "social awareness streams," and then took to examining user behavior. After dissecting over 3,000 tweets from more than 350 Twitter users' status updates the professors concluded that 80% of users are "meformers," or "Me Now" status updaters. Meformers are "people who use the platform to post updates on their everyday activities, social lives, feelings, thoughts, and emotions." The rest (20%) are informers who use the channels to share informational updates like links news articles. The research and methodology was carefully documented (see below), and in their analysis the professors distinguished 9 different types of tweets. Categories include information sharing, self promotion, opinions and complaints, statements and random thoughts, me now, question to followers, presence maintenance, self-referential anecdotes, and anecdotes about others. In the coding part of the process, researchers were able to attribute tweets to multiple categories. They also ensured that tweets were independently analyzed by two different parties to eliminate errors. Based on the categories and complex cluster analysis, the professors were able to lump Twitterers into one of two categories: meformers or informers. The former makes up 80% of the user base, while the latter a meager 20%. Interesting enough, though, the study also showed that the informers have significantly more friends and followers than their meformer counterparts. The median informer has 131 friends and 112 followers, while the median meformer has just 61 friends and 43 followers. Although not portraying the average Twitterer in a glamorous the light, the research seems to line up with other surveys, studies, and reports on the micro medium. It's even more unflattering then the San Diego State research that showed young people believe social media is for narcissists. It doesn't go so far as to say we tweet pointless babble, but it did find that 41% of all messages fall in the "Me now" category, which does correspond with the earlier study that claimed 40% of all tweets are pointless babble. You can read the entire report below, but here are a few additional interesting findings from the Twitter research: - Informers have a higher proportion of mentions of other users in their messages (that is they @reply to more Twitterers) - 25% of messages come from mobile phones - 51% of mobile-posted messages are "me now" messages, compared to the 37% of "me now" messages posted from non-mobile applications Twitter Study Image from verymissberry on Flickr Reviews: Flickr, Twitter Tags: meformer, rutgers, social awareness streams, twitter

Dropbox for iPhone Is Out (and Awesome) Posted: 29 Sep 2009 05:19 PM PDT In one of the better announcement posts we've seen, the Dropbox Blog let us know that the Dropbox iPhone app is now out and ready for free download (warning: iTunes link). We wrote about Dropbox in our 10 free social apps for the Mac feature recently (it's also available for Windows and Linux), and we're fans of the service for its easy and convenient cross-platform cloud storage and sharing capabilities. Now you can tap into your Dropbox account from your iPhone as well. It's not intended as a standalone app, so if you don't already have one the software will prompt you to create a free 2GB Dropbox account. After that you'll be able to view files, listen to music, or even watch videos stored in your Dropbox folder right from your phone. If you already use Dropbox on the desktop you'll know about and appreciate its automatic sync features, but surely because of potential space limitations the iPhone app thankfully doesn't actively sync your entire Dropbox collection. But it does support automatic downloads to your phone, and "favoriting" a Dropbox file will set it up to auto-sync. When a new version of the file is available on Dropbox, you'll be notified in the iPhone app and prompted to sync. Other features of the app include easy one-click sharing of your Dropbox files by email (a link to the file will be sent to the recipient), and a photo gallery view for easy browsing of images in your Dropbox account on your phone. You can also upload photos and video directly to your Dropbox, which when combined with Shared folders can quickly and easily share your media with friends and family. We've been checking out the new app so far today and have been impressed with its ease of use. The ability to connect natively on the go to a service we already find indispensable adds a lot of value. Are you a Dropbox user? If you have an iPhone, have you had a chance to check out the app yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: Dropbox, linux Tags: cloud storage, Dropbox, iphone, iphone apps, web services

Cops Behaving Badly: Officer Resigns Over Racist Facebook Video Posted: 29 Sep 2009 04:43 PM PDT In Bozeman, Montana misunderstanding social media may be a way of life, but in Calumet County, Wisconsin it's proven to be the difference between a job in law enforcement and unemployment. Last month Jennifer Bass, a Calumet County sheriff's deputy, decided to literally burn off workplace steam in an unsettling way. She, along with friends, took to her backyard to burn a stuffed officer's uniform, using sticky notes to identify fellow officers, in effigy. She also filmed and photographed the burning in effigy, posting video and photos of the incident to her Facebook profile (footage included below). Now that the video, which includes racial remarks regarding the KKK, has surfaced to an audience beyond just Facebook friends, she's since resigned from her position. County Sheriff, Jerry Page, is openly apologizing for the incident, which was brought to his attention by an undisclosed third-party source. Also feeling the heat is Wendy Schmitz, a Sherriff's investigator that was seen in photos posted to Facebook from the incident. Even though she attributes the racist statements to her coworker, she has admitted to participating in the burning and has been demoted as a result. It's an unfortunate stain on the county's reputation, which claims to use Facebook for assistance with their everyday investigations. More information on the incident, and actual footage, can be seen in this FOX 11 report included below. Reviews: Facebook Tags: calumet county, effigy, facebook, jennifer bass

The NHL's Latest Social Media Push: A Twitter Contest Posted: 29 Sep 2009 04:03 PM PDT It seems that every sport has a different take on social media. On one end, you have the NFL (aka the No Fun League) with its strict social media policy. In fact, it seems that Football organizations in general just don't like tweeting. On the other end of the spectrum is the less popular but well known National Hockey League, or the NHL. Earlier this year, they fully embraced Twitter by helping organize NHL Tweetups that created new NHL evangelists on Twitter. The NHL season is quickly approaching again – it opens on Thursday – and the NHL promotional push is back. And once again, they're taking to Twitter. This time, they're giving fans a chance to win free tickets with their #NHLPick15 contest. The contest is rather simple: pick the winners of the 15 games that will be played on October 3rd (Saturday), tweet them to @NHL, and include the hashtag. It will look something like this: The tiebreaker is to guess the total number of penalty minutes that all 30 teams will incur on Saturday, which you can include in your tweet. One person who gets all 15 teams right gets free tickets to any regular season game of their choice (minus the NHL Winter Classic). Ten others get NHL GameCenter Live for a season. It's a small but effective social media marketing promotion by the nation's premier hockey league. And since Gary Vaynerchuck's VaynerMedia is involved, you can expect a lot more of this type of social engagement from the NHL in the near future. Reviews: Twitter Tags: NHL, sports, twitter

Create Your Own Building for the Biggest Monopoly Game Ever Posted: 29 Sep 2009 03:11 PM PDT Ever wanted to design your own Monopoly property? Now you can, thanks to Hasbro and Google. We've been covering the new Monopoly City Streets real-world game using Google Maps since it launched earlier this month. Now, a "Design Your Own Building" competition gives you a chance to create a property that could win a place in the actual game. To enter the competition, you'll need to create your 3D building with the free 3D modeling tool Google SketchUp. Upload your design to the Google 3D Warehouse with the tag "monopolycompetition09″ to be considered for the contest (full rules here). Whether your building wins or not, it will show up with all the other entries in the Competition Collection. The three winning 3D structures will net their creators global Monopoly fame by being incorporated into the actual Monopoly City Streets game. The overall winner also takes home a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license, valued at $495. Will you be jumping at the chance to get your own creation into the biggest Monopoly game of all time? If so, let us know what kind of building you'd make. Reviews: Google Maps, Google SketchUp, Monopoly City Streets Tags: 3D modeling, Contests, games, gaming, Google, Google Maps, Google SketchUp, hasbro, monopoly city streets

Internet Art: Craigslist Missed Connections Become Gorgeous Visuals Posted: 29 Sep 2009 02:34 PM PDT The New York Times Bits blog has an amazing profile piece on Sophie Blackall, a Brooklyn, NY-based artist that has turned the musings of thwarted Missed Connections posters on Craigslist into an artistic hobby and budding business, complete with a pending book deal. Missed Connections is the portion of the Craigslist website where people seek to find or reconnect with romantic interests and capitalize on the moment in time that they let pass them by. It's an area filled with humor, hope, loss, regret, and even desire, making it ripe for artistic interpretation. And that's what Blackall has done. The children's book illustrator has created a side business that involves turning those posts into illustrated works of art, using Chinese ink and watercolor, that she posts on her blog, and sells on Etsy. The gorgeous interpretations portray everything from the comical to the heart-wrenchingly painful missed opportunities. And now these works of internet art could be making their way to a bookstore near year. According to the article: "Ms. Blackall's whimsical drawings have also caught the attention of publishers: She says she's currently negotiating a deal to create a book of her illustrations, which would likely land on shelves sometime in the next year to 18 months." It's a book that we would definitely buy. From some of the quixotic examples we've included below, it's plain to see that Blackall has an amazing ability to transform text into vivid scenes that we can visualize unfolding in real-life. Missed Connections Illustrations Reviews: Craigslist, blog Tags: art, craigslist, illustrations, missed connections, sophie blackall

Google Wave Invites: How To Get Them Posted: 29 Sep 2009 02:05 PM PDT The web is buzzing with excitement and anticipation. In less than 24 hours, Google Wave will launch to 100,000 early adopters. The real-time communication platform has been making headlines ever since it was announced back in May as a result of its potentially game-changing features. And while we've received our fair share of questions about Google's newest product (most of which we answered in our Google Wave guide), one keeps popping up time and time again: how do I get an invite to Google Wave? There Are Four Ways to Get an Invite Google clarified things earlier today with an update to their blog. They specifically highlighted the four key ways you can secure an invite. Here are the methods and what you need to know: 1. You signed up early on for a Google Wave account. Google put up a request form for Wave invites not long after Wave was announced. Most of the invites arriving tomorrow will go to people on that list. Your chances improve if you signed up early on and wrote a message to the Wave team. 2. You have an account on the Developer Preview of Wave. The Sandbox version of Google Wave has been active for a select group of developers for several months now, allowing them to test Wave, report bugs, and build Wave extensions. They will all get accounts. 3. Some paying users of Google Apps will get accounts. It's likely several companies asked Google for invites when the real-time tool launched. They will get accounts. Some schools that use Google Apps will also get early access. 4. You are invited by someone currently using Wave. This is the most intriguing revelation made today by the search giant. Here's how Google explained it: "We'll ask some of these early users to nominate people they know also to receive early invitations — Google Wave is a lot more useful if your friends, family and colleagues have it too. This, of course, will just be the beginning. If all goes well we will soon be inviting many more to try out Google Wave." Do you know what this reminds us of? Gmail. Do you remember when it first came out and there were a select number of invites users could send out? I remember that people were willing to pay cold, hard cash for one of those invites. You might see the same type of frenzy over Wave. Regardless, these are currently the only four ways to get an account on Wave. So if you don't get an invite tomorrow, you still have hope. You'll probably have to beg someone for an invite, though. Reviews: Gmail, Google, Google Wave Tags: Google, Google Wave

3 New Facebook Strategies for Building Your Personal Brand Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:39 PM PDT Dan Schawbel is the bestselling author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog and a columnist for BusinessWeek. With over 300 million users, no one can deny the power of Facebook. In fact, 50% of users log in every single day and spend over 6 billion minutes on the platform. What are they doing on it? Depending on the intent of the user, they're sharing personal stories and updates, staying connected to friends and colleagues, and even building businesses. Many people only use their profile to keep in touch with friends and family, and form a brick wall so no one else can come inside. This strategy won't help your career, but if you choose, you can also leverage Facebook to build your personal brand. If you do decide you want Facebook to support your personal brand, then you will have to capitalize on its openness and the ability to grow your network, one friend request at a time. There are three new features that you should pay close attention to, as you tap into the millions of resources presented to you on the service. Each feature — tagging, Pages and widgets, and real-time search — is tied to a specific personal branding strategy. 1. Facebook Tagging for Networking Your Brand Networking, as you can probably guess, is the key to forging a strong personal brand and developing your career. As you grow older, you will rely more and more on the "assets" in your network, which can range from your father to a coworker to even strangers you may have briefly met and exchanged information with in the past. Facebook tagging, in my opinion, has brought a whole new dimension to networking. The fact that you can use the "@" symbol when you post on your wall and associate a post with your friends' names, is remarkable, and is exceptionally useful for personal branding. Let's say you write a wall post about your weekend plans or a cool blog you're working on with a few people. You can use the tag feature to have that same wall post appear on their wall, which is great for visibility, appreciation, and for remaining in touch with people. When people comment on that post, whether it's on your wall or someone else's, you will be notified through email, so you can continue the conversation and meet new people. That can help you expand your network and stay top of mind with the people already in yours. 2. Facebook Pages and Widgets for Growing Your Brand Facebook Fan Pages are nothing new, but how you use them and promote them is what really counts. There are thousands of Pages out there, but only the best ones succeed in capturing the attention of Facebook users. You aren't going to be Vin Diesel or Coca Cola, but you can still make an impact. Your Page needs a focus and strategy behind it, so first you need to decide what it's going to be all about. For instance, do you want to use your profile page to build your network to the 5,000 friend limit and then create a Fan Page? Or do you want to keep your profile page for your immediate friends and use the Fan Page to interact with your social media entourage? These are questions you need to answer when building your brand on Facebook. A Fan Page can contain: - Event appearances with pictures and videos - A video introduction or running video blog - Press features - Your blog posts via syndication - Details about your personal and professional achievements - Delicious bookmarks that represent your industry - Pictures of you with celebrities from your industry - Wall posts, including: a quote of the day, event reminders, blog posts, news, etc. - Your LinkedIn profile Mashable on Facebook Once you decide how you want to present yourself on your Facebook Fan Page, what information you want displayed and what widgets you want to use, you should then grow your page to 25 fans as quickly as possible. This will allow you to get a username for your Page, so that your URL will be easier to share, remember, and discover. You should use either your full name (if you haven't already used it for your Facebook profile) or a positioning statement, such as http://facebook.com/facebookmarketingexpert. Next, you need to market your Fan Page like it's your job (because it is!). Here are just a handful of ideas you can use to spread the word about your Page: - Add a Facebook Fan Page widget to your web site or blog - Advertise your Facebook Page to targeted employers - Put your Facebook URL in your email signature, at the end of presentations, and possibly even on your traditional resume - Write articles and/or blog posts on other sites, leaving your Facebook URL in your bio or byline - Hold a contest on Twitter, where you give out free information or products to people who become fans of your Page on Facebook - Become part of communities in your niche, on a variety of social networks - Comment on blogs and instead of using your blog URL, use your Facebook address 3. Facebook Real-Time Search for Monitoring Your Brand At Mashable, we've given you ten free and ten paid reputation management tools, to monitor your personal brand (they also work for company and product brands). But that was all before Facebook released its real-time search engine, which replaced their legacy search engine. The new search engine identifies results, for each keyword entered, in conversations that are happening with your friends and the outside world. It also searches Fan Pages, groups, applications, events, people, and web results — so you can say it's truly an end-to-end solution. Aside from using tools such as Twitter Search or Google Alerts to keep track of personal brand mentions, you should occasionally (depending on your popularity) perform a search in Facebook to see what people are saying, both inside your network and outside. But what should you do when you're being talked about? - For a brand mention by someone in your network: If people are saying something positive, then you should "like" the conversation and possibly leave a comment, such as, "Thank you for the mention," or a value-add comment such as, "I would like to add _______," or, "What do you think of _____?" - For a brand mention by someone outside of your network: You should friend them, because they gave you the opening, and then send them a nice note through Facebook mail thanking them for the mention. Facebook's new features present many opportunities for building your personal brand. The tagging feature is a great tool for professional networking, while Facebook Pages allow you to extend your brand and grow it virally. The search functionality is another data point that you can use to keep track of what people are saying about you. There's no doubt that Facebook is here to stay, so if you start using these features now, you'll be prepared to be more successful in the future. More Facebook resources from Mashable: - HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional Networking - 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand's Facebook Presence - The Journalist's Guide to Facebook - Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What's the Difference? - HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook Reviews: Delicious, Facebook, Mashable, Twitter, tweetzi Twitter Search Tags: branding. personal branding, facebook, facebook pages, List, Lists

Texas Tech Football Coach Calls Twitter Users Narcissists Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:20 PM PDT Yesterday we reported that Twitter was banned for the entire Texas Tech football team after a few inappropriate tweets caught the attention of head coach Mike Leach. Since reporting that story, we've discovered that Leach isn't limiting his negative Twitter opinions to his team members, but expanding them to include the whole Twittersphere. Leach seems to agree with the study showing that social media is for narcissists, as the AP reports that Leach says that Twitter users are just a "bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time." That's a pretty harsh assessment. In fact, regarding team members that tweet, he went on to say, "We'll put mirrors in some of their lockers if that's necessary but they don't have to Twitter." Obviously Leach has yet to read our post, Sports and Social: Where Opportunity and Fear Collide. But then again, neither have the Twittering athletes who say too much and find themselves in hot water as a result. It seems like social media and Twitter are getting banned at every turn, with athletes who fail to think before they tweet (like the Redskins player that mocked fans) deleting their accounts, receiving fines, or getting suspended. Yesterday alone we saw the Texas Tech Twitter ban, another story about New York Jets wide receiver David Clowney getting benched for a tweet, and also the NBA's new social media policy that forbids in-game tweeting. What Twitter restrictions, bans, or fines will we see tomorrow in the sports world? Who knows, but there's surely more of this to come. Image from thecameo on Flickr Reviews: Flickr, Twitter Tags: mike leach, sports, texas tech, twitter

Microsoft Releases Free Anti-Virus Software Posted: 29 Sep 2009 01:04 PM PDT Alright Windows users, no more excuses for not having up-to-date anti-virus or anti-malware protection. Microsoft has released its new Security Essentials software that offers real-time protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs. It's also free. Although there are lots of anti-virus and anti-malware programs available (many which are also free), perhaps the Microsoft name and easy integration into Windows can help users who might not be familiar with some of the available programs get and stay protected. Microsoft says that Security Essentials is designed to run quietly in the background (no constant UAC alerts) and that it doesn't hog CPU or memory usage. A constant complaint about some of the bigger name security suites is that they slow down the computer's overall performance. Security Essentials also uses what Microsoft calls its Dynamic Signature Service, which is supposed to ensure that users are always protected and up-to-date, without having to wait for the next scheduled download. Like any other standard security product, you can schedule full or quick system scans, exclude certain file types of processes from being scanned, and designate how you are alerted of various actions and what you want the default step to be. Security Essentials is free — and no sign-up or registration is necessary — but you need to have a genuine copy of Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista, or the upcoming Windows 7. Security Essentials will also run in Windows XP mode in Windows 7 — so if you plan on running XP mode to keep compatibility with older stuff, your security won't be compromised. With viruses and malware a constant threat to Windows users all over the world, it's about time Microsoft offered an actual security package. One note, however — if you already have an anti-virus or anti-malware program installed, make sure you uninstall it before installing Security Essentials. What do you use to protect your computers against viruses? Reviews: Windows 7, Windows Vista Tags: anti-virus, security essentials, security software, Windows

Online Retailers: 99% Plan to Have Facebook Fan Pages Posted: 29 Sep 2009 12:14 PM PDT With two-thirds of marketers using social media, and retailers shifting marketing dollars towards social initiatives, it comes as no surprise that new research from the e-tailing group and PowerReviews shows that brands are more hip to social media than ever before. What is quite remarkable, however, is the extent at which brands and retailers are adopting and implementing social media tools, and their preferred social home — Facebook. According to eMarketer, a combined 99% of surveyed online retailers currently employ (86%) or plan to employ (13%) Facebook Fan Pages. Similar stats hold true for Twitter too. 65% are already all a-Twitter, with 26% planning to get in on the action as well. If the survey results are to be trusted, nearly all online retailers will have Facebook Fan Pages, and 91% will be using Twitter for status updates by the year 2011. Data from the "Community and Social Media Study" was gathered between August and September of this year, and shows that retail respondents are also favorable to creating and managing their own blogs, but they're not as keen to adopt the longer form outlet as readily as they are Facebook or Twitter. In fact, at first glance, it might be a little surprising to find that only 55% of those surveyed have blogs now, but 65% and 86% have Twitter accounts or Fan Pages respectively. Marry those stats against the fact that retailers still fear losing control of their branding, and you have a bit of a oxymoron. The data shows that retailers are actively adopting social media tools on third-party sites over adding social utilities like a blog, Facebook Connect (43% use today), or forums (27%) to their own sites. But, according to the report, "One of their biggest fears was that customers would abandon their site in favor of one that was more socially engaging." Perhaps that conundrum can be rectified by the notion that the study also found that "the primary social media goal … was to increase customer engagement." Social sites do offer a quick and easy way to reach and engage with a broader customer base. Just look at the New England Patriots Facebook initiatives for a prime example of a big brand opting to add social utility on Facebook instead of their own website. Interesting enough is that this study's social media adoption rates closely mirror a recent Mzigna/Babson Executive Education study, but that particular study also found that 84% don't measure the ROI of their social media programs. Clearly we can expect to see adoption rates continue to rise, but what happens after the Facebook Fan Page, Twitter accounts, and blogs are created still remains somewhat of a mystery. Image from Pete Kim, on Flickr Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter Tags: BLOGS, facebook, research, social media marketing, twitter

Smarter Transportation: 10 Social Media Tools to Navigate Your City Posted: 29 Sep 2009 10:16 AM PDT The Smarter Cities series is supported by IBM. Read more about building a smarter planet on the IBM A Smarter Planet Blog. There's no question that social media has brought us a lot closer by allowing anyone to communicate in virtual settings with people all over the world. But social media tools are also helping us to hack the way we interact with the real world. From figuring out the best route to get from point A to point B to helping people avoid speeding tickets, from simplifying public transportation to arranging carpools, social media tools are making it easier for people to get around the places they live. We've collected a list of ten great social media tools to help you better navigate your city and connect with your neighbors. If you know of any others, please mention them in the comments! 1. Google Maps Google Maps is the crème de la crème of online mapping applications, with satellite and terrain maps, embedded Wikipedia information, local business info, and turn-by-turn directions for car, walking, and public transit. Google doesn't set the gold standard for mapping by being the prettiest mapping application (Microsoft's mapping app is arguably easier on the eyes), but rather because of the pace at which the company innovates. Their "Street View" technology, for example, offers impressive and highly useful 360 degree panoramic street-level photographs for an unmatched and growing number of cities around the world. And their live and predictive traffic maps can show users traffic congestion now or in the future (based on historical data) for at least 30 different cities. These sorts of innovative features are why Google Maps is one of the best tools any city navigator can have in his or her arsenal. 2. Waze Like Google's traffic maps, Waze collects real-time information from users using their mobile phone applications. If you're stuck in traffic, the Waze app will send data about where you are and how fast you're going to others in your area so they can reroute to a road with less traffic congestion. Where Waze one-ups Google is in the ability for people to report on the causes of traffic (such as an accident, downed tree, or construction) or to report speed traps. If you're just interested in avoiding speed traps, check out Trapster, a crowdsourced speed trap sharing system that alerts you to speed traps and red-light cameras. 3. Wayfaring Wayfaring is a great Google Maps mashup that helps users to easily create their own information maps. Whether mapping the route of your morning jog, keeping track of where you went on your roadtrip, or mapping out the best places for pizza in Chicago, Wayfaring lets users share their experiences with one another. It's a great way to connect with other local travelers or find cool places or routes when in a new city. 4. Walk Score Because not all transportation is done on wheels, Walk Score will tell you the most walkable places to live. What makes an area walkable? Public spaces, nearby amenities, a pedestrian centric design (with parking lots behind businesses and storefronts close to the sidewalk), slow traffic, count-down crosswalk timers, and accessibility features (like wheelchair ramps), among other things. Enter your address into Walk Score to see how walkable your neighborhood is, and get details on nearby restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, public parks, schools, and other amenities. Any score above 80 means you live in an area where a car isn't necessary to get by. 5. MapMyRide East River 1.5 Find more Runs in Manhattan, New York For those of you who get around on two wheels, MapMyRide is for you. The site lets you plot your bike riding routes using Google Maps, and view other routes that fellow bikers have entered. You can view routes on a regular map, or add in elevation data to see how much uphill and downhill riding you'll have to contend with. Where available, you can also preview what that route will look like at bike level by using Google's Street View. MapMyRide also offers a calculator to estimate how many calories your bike ride will burn, and premium memberships with workout tracking and printable maps. Also check out Bikely, a similar site where riders share their biking routes. 6. HopStop Of course, sometimes the weather makes riding your bike or walking a less than desirable prospect — public transportation to the rescue! HopStop makes riding the subway or the bus in New York, New Jersey, Long Island, Boston Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, London, and Paris a breeze. Unless you're very familiar with a public transportation system, getting around in a new city can be tough. HopStop takes out the guesswork by telling you which trains and buses to take and how to get from station to station. I use it to map out subway routes whenever I am traveling in a city where I don't know the system very well. Also check out Google Transit, which gives transportation directions for more than 425 cities around the world. 7. Zimride If you do plan to take a car, why not share a ride with someone else? Carpooling is better for the environment, it saves money, and it can save time if it makes you eligible for a high speed HOV lane during your commute. Zimride, which recently completed a 12 week mentorship program as part of the fbFund seed program, connects carpoolers together for one-time rides, regular commutes, and cab shares in the US and Canada. Because of Zimride's clever integration with Facebook Connect, you can query your Facebook friends or your work or school network for rides to help ensure that you're not getting into the car with an axe murderer (and increase the likelihood of finding someone in your area heading in the same direction as you). Also check out Avego. 8. RideCharge If you neither own a car nor want to get into one with a complete stranger, then RideCharge might be for you. RideCharge lets you book taxis in 27 metro areas via your mobile device so that you never need to be caught out in the rain trying to hail a cab. The site is especially helpful for corporate travelers or those who need to be in a specific place at a specific time. If you pre-book your taxi, sedan, or shuttle, you can be sure you'll get to your appointment on time. 9. GasBuddy For those who need to travel by car, GasBuddy is a must-visit site. Relying on crowd submitted information, GasBuddy delivers up-to-date gas prices for cities across the US and Canada, so that you can always find the lowest gas prices in your area. Once you locate the cheapest gas station, use GasEdge to calculate if the extra driving for an out-of-the-way bargain will actually be worth it, or if going to your regular, but more expensive, station will actually save you money in the end. 10. FuelFrog FuelFrog lets you log mileage between fill ups, how much gas cost, and how many gallons or liters you added to your tank simply by tweeting your daily fuel data. The site then creates handy graphs that can be helpful in charting your fuel usage, identifying trends in your local gas prices, and learning how your car uses fuel (which could help alert you to issues like the need for a tune-up or that your tires are low on air). The information could also help you adjust your transportation habits so that you burn less fuel and save money. Also check out MyMileMarker, which lets you enter fuel data via its web site, right from the pump through a special mobile site, or on Twitter. BONUS: Yelp Once you've figured out how to navigate around your city using social media tools, you need somewhere to go. The first place to turn to find your city's hotspots should be Yelp, a crowd-powered ratings and reviews site that offers listings for thousands of restaurants and other local businesses in cities across the US and the UK. Also check out foursquare and Brightkite to see what people in your city are up to and where they're hanging out. Smarter Cities series supported by IBM The Smarter Cities series is supported by IBM. Read more about building a smarter planet on the IBM A Smarter Planet Blog. More social media resources from Mashable - HOW TO: Plan a Vacation Using Social Media - Local Tweets: 9 Ways to Find Local Twitter Users in Your Town - 15+ FREE iPhone Apps to Navigate Your World - 5 Ways Twitter Can Save You Money - 12 Resources for Navigating Your Local Mass Transit Reviews: Brightkite, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yelp Tags: fuelfrog, GasBuddy, Google Maps, hopstop, Lists, mapmyride, ridecharge, smarter cities, social media, tools, transit, transportation, walk score, wayfaring, waze, yelp, Zimride

RUMOR: Apple Tablet Is an iPhone with a 10.7″ Screen Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:55 AM PDT Those Apple Tablet rumors just keep coming. Apple sure is getting a lot of publicity for a product that hasn't even been officially acknowledged (but that virtually everyone believes is indeed a reality). The idea of an enlarged iPhone-type of device is just too tempting not to discuss. Although there have been rumors about the size of the screen and the different manufacturers providing the parts, details about the device itself have been mostly relegated to fan-made mock-ups and idle speculation. However, today Jeremy Horowitz from iLounge is reporting on some very detailed rumors regarding the device, its features, and its projected release. The Look According to iLounge's source (who correctly provided details on the iPod nano 5G and its camera way back in May), several prototypes of the Apple Tablet have been produced. Apparently the first version had a 7″ screen, but the current prototype has a 10.7″ screen. The resolution will be 5-6 times that of the iPhone, probably in the 720p range (1280×720). iLounge also says that the device will look similar to an enlarged iPhone 3GS, with a curved back. The Guts Details on the processor, memory, and storage capacity are sill nil, but iLounge's source says that the tablet will run the iPhone OS and come in a 3G and non-3G version. The device apparently isn't supposed to compete with netbooks — instead it is aimed at being a larger media player/communications device, perfect for watching movies or TV shows, playing iPhone games, and reading books or magazines. The Release Date This is the most interesting part of the iLounge rumor: apparently the device will be announced on or before January 19, 2010, with an actual launch planned for May or June of 2010. If you recall, this was how the iPhone was announced and released in 2007. Although Apple has a long history of announcing or releasing new products in January, a large part of this timing was because January coincided with Macworld San Francisco. Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be the last year that they would participate in the event (which has been moved to February for 2010) and has not confirmed any plans to be present at the other big January conference, CES. It strikes me as a bit odd that Apple would decide to sit out of a big media/press event like Macworld, only to have their own conference or announcement in January anyway. iLounge's source says that the device has an 80% chance of making it to market, but notes that Steve Jobs still has final say over whether or not it is released. This aspect of the rumor certainly seems convenient, as it is an easy way to deflect the story if things don't end up shaping up as planned. What do you think? Again, it goes without saying that although iLounge is claiming this is from a very reliable source, this is all just rumor and all or none of these details could prove accurate. We still don't have any confirmation on pricing, 3G carrier (if there is one) or general tech specs, but these are the first details about the device's design and overall product intentions to come from a reliable news source. What do you think about the Apple Tablet rumors? Are you interested in essentially an enlarged iPhone with a higher-resolution screen? What is your dream Apple Tablet device? Share your thoughts in the comments. Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, iphone, rumors

Google Wave: The Wait Is Almost Over Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:17 AM PDT Google's anticipated real-time communication platform launches in less than 24 hours. That's right, we're talking about Google Wave. What we already know: On September 30th, Google will send out 100,000 invites to Google Wave. Since it's already September 30th in Australia (where the Google Wave team is located), that means the invites will flood inboxes very soon. The communication tool incorporates real-time updates, wiki-style functionality, extensions, playback, and many more features in an attempt to redefine how we communicate. Some call it an email killer, others think it's too ambitious for its own good. Because the launch is so hotly anticipated, Google decided to give everyone an update on the impending rollout: "Starting Wednesday, September 30 we'll be sending out more than 100,000 invitations to preview Google Wave to: - Developers who have been active in the developer preview we started back in June - The first users who signed up and offered to give feedback on wave.google.com - Select customers of Google Apps We'll ask some of these early users to nominate people they know also to receive early invitations — Google Wave is a lot more useful if your friends, family and colleagues have it too. This, of course, will just be the beginning. If all goes well we will soon be inviting many more to try out Google Wave." In less than 24 hours, Wave will be in the hands of 100,000 early adopters and developers. We'll be there to cover it all. Hold onto your hats: Wave is approaching fast. More Google Wave Resources from Mashable - Google Wave: A Complete Guide - Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal - The Top 6 Game-Changing Features of Google Wave - Google Wave Extensions: An Inside Look - Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication? - Twave: Google Wave + Twitter Reviews: Australia, Google, Google Wave Tags: Google, Google Wave

DEAL: Warner Music Artists Return to YouTube Posted: 29 Sep 2009 08:59 AM PDT Last week, we reported that YouTube and Warner Music had settled their differences and were going to bring Warner Music artists and content back to YouTube. YouTube and Warner, however, had made no announcement. Now it's official. In an early morning conference call, YouTube and Warner Music announced that they had struck a partnership that will bring their music content back to the video sharing service. That means Green Day, Madonna, Death Cab For Cutie, Diddy, and others will be available again. While the announcement wasn't unexpected, the call did reveal a few new details, including: - User-generated content using Warner Music artists and labels will make its return to YouTube as well. - Warner Music Group will be allowed to run ads against its content. - Warner Music will get a majority of the advertising revenue and will have the ability to advertise on not only videos of their artists, but of any user-generated content using their music as well. - YouTube now has deals with all four major record labels. It's good that Warner Music Group's expansive list of artists is returning to YouTube. Now that the site has all of the major music labels under its belt, what can we expect next? Reviews: YouTube Tags: warner music group, youtube

New England Patriots Choose Facebook as Primary Social Media Hub Posted: 29 Sep 2009 07:19 AM PDT You know how bands often tend to put more importance on their MySpace page than on their dot com website? Well, the New England Patriots are now doing something similar on Facebook. They've partnered with Buddy Media to create a new section of their Facebook page, dubbed the "Fan Zone", where fans can check out a calendar of Patriots-related events, play a Fantasy Forecast game, test their Patriots knowledge in the Patriots Trivia Challenge, send virtual Patriots gifts to their friends and more. What's interesting about this new initiative is the fact that none of this is available on the official Patriots website. True, some parts of the Facebook Fan Zone still link to that website, but for the most part, fans would do better to visit the Facebook page than the official, dot com page. As the importance of social media increases, I reckon that more and more big brands will put emphasis on their presence on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter instead on their official websites. Patriots' Director of Interactive Media Fred Kirsch explains the move: "We really weren't anywhere [before] as it relates to social media. We had to get into the game, and to have that kind of audience we have on Facebook, you can't get that kind of immediate impact on [Patriots.com]." For more on this topic, check out this article: Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant? Reviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: facebook, New England Patriots, social media

Tungle Helps Schedule Meetings Across the Desktop, Web, and iPhone Posted: 28 Sep 2009 11:22 PM PDT This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Tungle Quick Pitch: Tungle is a calendar accelerator that makes it easier to schedule meetings across organizations, calendar systems, and time zones. Genius Idea: Scheduling meetings and keeping abreast of people's availability is increasingly difficult as offices become more virtual and communication becomes more location-agnostic. Tungle is a great way to schedule or propose meeting times and to stay on top of your meetings and activities. Tungle's biggest asset is that it integrates seamlessly with Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal for Mac OS X and Entourage for Mac. Support for Lotus Notes is coming soon. Tungle basically hooks into your existing calendar and keeps track of when you are busy and when you are free. That way, if someone wants to propose a meeting time to you, they can instantly select times that they know you aren't busy. Although signing up for a Tungle account certainly makes it easier to see who is available when and for what, you can invite or schedule meetings with people that don't have Tungle accounts easily. Those users get an e-mail with either a meeting date or a selection of times, confirm or select what time they can attend, and then both parties receive reminders before the meeting takes place. As a Tungle user, that meeting is automatically updated to the calendar you have synced with Tungle. If you set-up the Tungle.me service, you can offer up your available/busy times to outsiders, so they can see what is going on and schedule a meeting with you. The best part is, the details of your meetings are never revealed, it just shows that you are busy if you choose to make your availability information public. Tungle also has a Facebook application and can integrate with Ning, Xing and LinkedIn. Tungle for iPhone When I first played around with Tungle back in May, I was impressed. The latest Tungle addition — Tungle for iPhone (iTunes link) — really takes Tungle to a new level. You can schedule meetings with contacts, view your contacts availability times as an overlay on your own calendar and easily see reminders for your meetings at a glance. The app is free and is a really nice addition to the Tungle service. If you find yourself scheduling lots of meetings with people in or out of your network and often with different time zones, Tungle is definitely worth a try. It makes scheduling and managing meetings easy and it fits into your existing calendar workflow. Spark of Genius Series 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)." Reviews: Facebook, LinkedIn, PHP, Tungle, XING Tags: calend, event scheduling, scheduling, tungle