TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go

If you swing past your local Best Buy and pick up one of those new-fangled LG Smart TVs, you'll find TouchTV's news-clip collection platform available inside. That way you'll be able to watch the trendiest (or at least the most watched) current-affairs clips without having to wait the twenty seconds or so before your rolling news channel of choice displays similar. TouchTV also announced today an iPad app that'll let you grab those newsy clips from your Apple-based slate of choice. The app's available gratis from the store (link below) and we've got the official words and pictures from the company about both products after the interval.

Jose Andrade contributed to this report.

Continue reading TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go

TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/touchtv-comes-to-lg-smart-tv-ipads-catch-n...

Sensixa e-AR duplicates the inner ear, knows if you've fallen and can't get up

No, it's not a Philippe Starck-designed hearing aid, although we kind of wish it were. What you're actually looking at is an over-the-ear sensor, dubbed the e-AR, made to mimic the human vestibular system. In layman's terms, this 3D accelerometer-equipped device, crafted by Sensixa, is capable of recording real-time information related to posture and orientation, much like the inner ear does, which is then relayed via an embedded low power radio to a remote receiver. The tech, which we spied passing through the FCC's gates, has already undergone several trials for sports and is now being eyed for use in geriatric care. (Take that, Life Alert pendants.) Interest piqued? Then feel free to peruse the rest of the filing and provided user's manual at the source below.

Sensixa e-AR duplicates the inner ear, knows if you've fallen and can't get up originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/sensixa-e-ar-duplicates-the-inner-ear-know...

14 Steps To Successful SEO For Startups

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This is a guest post by Ryan Spoon (@ryanspoon), a principal at Polaris Ventures. Read more about Ryan on his blog at ryanspoon.com.

For startups, it is dangerous to entirely separate product and marketing – both strategically and organizationally. A great product isn’t overly useful without an audience. And a great marketing strategy can’t save a poor product. Product and marketing have to coexist.

So when imaging, building and eventually launching your product, it is important to also hone the marketing strategy. There are five core channels:

- Paid marketing (SEM, display, affiliates, etc)
- Social & viral marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Partnerships & business development
- PR

For early-stage companies, advertising at scale is expensive and consequently difficult. Furthermore, PR and business development become easier efforts as the company matures. So where does that leave you as a resource-constrained startup?

Marketing needs to come from the product itself. Last week I explored the role that social and virals play. And while the tech world is fascinated with social media and major platforms like Facebook and Twitter, we shouldn’t overlook the role of SEO (and consequently Google). Like Facebook and Twitter, SEO is another opportunity to expand your funnel and increase your audience — without an advertising budget! Also like social, SEO is far more effective when built directly into the product (“from the ground up”). Here are 14 guidelines for thinking about SEO.


from TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/21/startupseo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium...

6 Things to Know Before Starting a Business

startup image


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

An entrepreneur’s life can be a real roller coaster. Having started a few businesses in my career, I thought it would be useful to highlight some of the hard-won experience I’ve learned throughout the process — the kind of advice I wish I’d known when I started my first, or even second, business.


1. Don’t Underestimate a Business Plan


If you’re not seeking outside funding at the start, it’s tempting to forgo writing out a formal business plan. However, taking the time to write out your business plan, forecasts and marketing strategy is a particularly effective way to hone your vision. All planning should center around two essential questions: How is my business serving a particular need or pain point, and does this represent a major market opportunity?

In addition, don’t overlook the exit strategy at the beginning. Do you want your children to take over the company? Do you want to sell it? It’s critical to think about these questions from the start, as the building blocks of your company (such as legal structure) should vary depending on your preferred final outcome.


2. Don’t Get Stuck in the Past


My husband and I launched our first online legal document filing service in 1997, and then re-entered the market with our second company in 2009. While our previous experience certainly gave us a leg up the second time around, we soon realized the market landscape had changed dramatically since our first company. We had to stop dwelling on previous competitors, customer needs and service expectations and write a brand new playbook.

The marketplace and your business plan are living entities; they’re continually in flux. Whether it’s your first company or fifth in a given market, you’ve got to keep asking: What do we need to do today?


3. Don’t Hire Friends


I form bonds quickly and make fast friends with people around me. While I generally consider this a positive trait, it has created some difficult situations when running a business. At times I have been reluctant to let employees go even though I know it’s not a good fit. If things aren’t working out between an employee and startup, it’s time to put feelings aside and trust that the person will find a better situation elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I’ve also learned that people can let you down, ranging from laziness to fraud. I still believe that faith in people is a good thing. However, blind faith can bring trouble.


4. Don’t Dive in Without a Plan


Just like the business plan, it’s critical to think through any initiative you wish to launch. When you’re in the midst of startup fever, it’s easy to get wrapped up with every new idea. However, be careful of losing focus. Moving forward is critical for any startup, and constantly switching directions can impede this forward progress. With each new idea, step back and think how it fits into your company’s overall goal and vision, then create a plan for how to make it happen.


5. Don’t Fall Into a Discount Trap


At the beginning, too many young companies feel the pressure to heavily discount their prices in order to win business. While customer acquisition is important, attracting customers at unsustainable price levels will just result in a race to the bottom. After all, raising your prices on goods and certain services can be a tricky proposition. I’ve learned that you’re better off in the long run focusing on how to bring more value to customers, rather than simply slashing your prices.


6. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail


Soccer coach Sven-Goran Eriksson once said, “The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” An entrepreneur’s path is uncharted and sometimes a little bumpy. It’s easy to get stressed or downright panicked, but you cannot let fear prevent you from following your dreams. Think of it this way: the sooner you fail, the closer you are to discovering what works.


Conclusion


While you can’t guarantee the outcome of any new venture, you can stack the odds in your favor. These are six lessons I’ve learned over time and countless others are out there. If you’re open, you can gain wisdom from everything you try and gather insight from fellow entrepreneurs. What do you wish you knew when you started your first business?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ineskoleva

More About: Business, features, mashable, open forum, small business whiteboard, Startups

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/21/6-things-starting-business/?utm_source=feedbur...

Twitter Releases 2012 Sundance Film Festival Must-Follow List

sundance image


Twitter is getting into the Sundance Film Festival buzz with a list of must-follow accounts from top filmmakers, critics and interesting voices that will be at this year’s movie extravaganza. The Twitter list is a way to promote the festival’s growing social media presence as well as allow movie fans who can’t travel to Utah to participate in the festivities from afar.

The list, called Sundance2012filmmakers, includes filmmakers such as @SpikeLee (Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer), @Birbigs (Mike Birbiglia, Sleepwalk With Me) and @EricWareheim (Eric Wareheim, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Move).

It also includes other festival-goers including actors such as @hitRECordjoe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), rappers-turned-actors like @Common (Common) and film critics including @aoscott (A.O. Scott, the New York Times). The list is curated by Basil Tsiokos, a programming associate for the Sundance Film Festival (@sundancefest).

If you want to get behind-the-scenes video and exclusive content, the Sundance Twitter account or Tsiokos’ Twitter list can be a bit of a chore. Go to Sundance’s Facebook page to get easy access to videos such as director Alison Klayman speaking about her documentary about Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, or catch an ongoing livestream of interviews and features from the festival.

The movie industry is becoming more social. Studios and filmmakers are realizing social media is a great way to promote their movies, especially for smaller films that may not be able to buy TV spots. One such movie, Indie Game: The Movie is making its debut at Sundance. The documentary used Kickstarter to help raise more than $100,000 — all while building an engaged and loyal audience.

Will you be following the 2012 Sundance Film Fesitval on Twitter? How important is social media for modern films?

Image courtesy of Calvin Knight and Sundance Film Festival

More About: Film, movie, Social Media, Twitter

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sundance-film-festival-twitter-list/?utm_sourc...

Y Combinator Wants To Kill Hollywood

An anonymous reader writes "Y Combinator, a firm that invests in startups, has put out a call to kill Hollywood. In a post on their site, the firm said attempts at legislation similar to SOPA wouldn't stop until there is no industry left to protect. They now want to incubate ideas for new types of entertainment, so we can evolve the movie and television industries. Quoting: 'There will be several answers, ranging from new ways to produce and distribute shows, through new media (e.g. games) that look a lot like shows but are more interactive, to things (e.g. social sites and apps) that have little in common with movies and TV except competing with them for finite audience attention. Some of the best ideas may initially look like they're serving the movie and TV industries. Microsoft seemed like a technology supplier to IBM before eating their lunch, and Google did the same thing to Yahoo.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/01/21/1550229/y-combinator-wants-t...

Project Bifrost: (Fission) Rockets of the Future?

astroengine writes "Researchers from Icarus Interstellar Inc. and General Propulsion Science have announced their intention to pursue the development of Nuclear Thermal Rockets and other fission-based space technologies. The aim? To revolutionize space travel, ultimately paving the way to the goal of sending a probe to another star."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/01/21/0927258/project-bifrost-fission-ro...

What Can Twitter Tell Us About the South Carolina Primary?


What’s the social sentiment on Twitter saying about Saturday’s South Carolina Primary? Mashable teamed up with social media analysis company Global Point Research to find out.

In the latest results from Public Policy Polling (PPP), Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is strong heading into tonight’s primary. He has a nine point lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum just barely edged out Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) for third place.

The latest American Research Group poll also shows Gingrich leading the rest of the candidates by a wide margin.

Gingrich’s sudden burst of energy is mirrored on Twitter. Ron Paul is doing much better among Twitter users than in the PPP poll, ranking just under Gingrich. Romney and Santorum are falling flat on the microblogging service, with the least positive sentiment surrounding their campaigns:

Twitter suggests strong showings for Gingrich and Paul, but a less spectacular night for Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

In Iowa, we found that Romney’s Twitter status fell flat, while Santorum’s spiked — and Santorum was recently declared the winner. New Hampshire’s results showed a clear advantage for Romney, who ran away with the contest.

In research Global Point has done in the past, its data tends to be about two weeks ahead of polls and elections. For their analysis, Global Point used tweets from Jan. 15 – Jan. 20 which mentioned the South Carolina primary. Their weighted metric combines tweet volume and retweets with detailed sentiment analysis.

The PPP polled 1,540 “likely Republican voters,” and had a margin of error of 2.5%.

Global Point’s data isn’t a scientific poll. However, we’re asking: Is it useful to look at social media sentiment ahead of an election?

We’ll continue to answer that question, but what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JamesBrey

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Twitter


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/21/twitter-south-carolina/?utm_source=feedburner&...

Announcing gzip compression for Streaming APIs

A piece of feedback we regularly get from Streaming API consumers is that the bandwidth required to maintain a connection can be very large for high-traffic connections such as the Firehose and Site Streams. As the number of Tweets flowing through Twitter's servers grows, this has been a bigger and bigger problem. I'm happy to announce that we've started rolling out code which will help address this, by sending gzipped streams to consumers who request them.

read more

from Twitter Developers blogs https://dev.twitter.com/blog/announcing-gzip-compression-streaming-apis

3 Metrics that Will Change the Way You Market on Facebook


Amy Porterfield is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and creator of the Facebook marketing training program, FBinfluence. You can join her on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyPorterfield or read her blog at AmyPorterfield.com.

Facebook isn’t just the largest social networking site on the web (with more than 800 million active users); it also collects a massive amount of information about those users. Through the newly revamped Facebook Insights, Page owners can access a staggering amount of information about their fans’ activities. This information gives business owners valuable insight into what they need to do to give fans a better experience and, in turn, achieve better marketing results.

But it can be challenging to sift through all that data. An easy way to avoid metrics overdose is to find and target just a few key metrics.

Below is an overview of three game-changing metrics you should be tracking, along with concrete tips for improving your Page’s performance in each area.


1. Track ”People Talking About This”


People Talking About This is one of the new metrics for Facebook Pages. Unlike other metrics on your Insights dashboard, it’s also the only one visible to the public.

This number represents the total number of people who, over the past seven days, have engaged with your Page in any way — by Liking it, commenting on or sharing a post, answering a question, tagging your Page, or responding to an event. In your Insights dashboard, you’ll also see a percentage increase or decrease next to the current number, so you can compare this week’s engagement against last week’s stats.

If you want to build a thriving community on Facebook — or if you want to turn existing fans into raving super fans — engagement is the most critical metric you can track. And People Talking About This is a good measure of overall engagement.

Luckily, the best way to increase engagement is easy: Just ask.

Ask your fans questions, request their opinions, and ask people to click. Don’t post, “I’m excited about the Superbowl this year!” Instead, write, “Click Like if you’re excited about the Superbowl this year!” You can also ask people to share your content. I might write, “If you found this tip useful, make sure to share it with your friends.” Inserting mini calls-to-action reminds your audiences to act, not just read.

Tip: Never let a post go unattended — meaning, when someone does comment, Like or share your post, reach out to him personally and acknowledge his action with a thank you, or use it as an opportunity to expand the conversation. But whatever you do, don’t leave fans hanging.


2. Track “Engaged Users”


On your Insights dashboard, you’ll see a chart in the Page Post Information area with a column called “Engaged Users.” The number represents the number of unique people to have clicked anywhere on that post. (Note: Insights only tracks this for 28 days.)

Hint: If you click on the number itself, you’ll also see a pie chart with types of clicks, including “other,” which counts the clicks not included in any other metric (clicking on someone’s name, for example). This shows you how many people are really paying attention, even if they don’t comment or click Like.

Engaged Users is another engagement-related metric, but since it tracks actual clicks, you can see how your audience interacts with your posts — and use this information to craft more engaging calls-to-action.

Tip: Target posts to your ideal audience. If you’re not getting steady, increasing clicks on your posts over time, the most likely culprit is that you’re not giving your audience members the information they need.

To create more targeted posts, ask yourself:

  • Who is my ideal audience? Age? Male/Female? Location?
  • What type of information do they want from me?
  • What are the main challenges I can solve for them?

Instead of guessing the answers, collect feedback online or use Facebook polls to find out more about what your audience is actually looking for.


3. Track “External Referrers”


Click on Reach (under Insights in your sidebar) and scroll down to find “External Referrers.” You’ll see a list that shows how many times people arrived on your Facebook Page from an external site during a selected date range.

All business owners should know where and how people are finding them online. While it’s important to direct traffic from social media to your main “hub,” whether it’s a blog or a static business site, bringing traffic onto your Facebook Page is also important.

Why? Because Facebook allows you to have conversations and build relationships that you just can’t have on a regular website. Those conversations can yield powerful market insights and, eventually, lead to actual sales.

Tip: Actively drive traffic to Facebook. Start by determining where your current referrals are coming from, and then ask yourself whether you’re doing all of the following.

  • Am I optimizing my Facebook Page so that when Google indexes Facebook, users find my Page too? Make sure to include keyword-rich information on your “Info Tab” to help users find you easily.
  • Am I doing enough outside of my website and Page to bring traffic in? One way to do this is by guest posting to blogs in your niche, especially highly trafficked blogs. In general, getting yourself out there is good, whether by webinars, teleconferences, interviews or free online trainings. Each is a great forum for driving more traffic to your Facebook Page — and you can get feedback on participant experiences when they stop by.
  • Does my website account for some of my referrals? If not, make some changes to your business site. Add a Like box social plugin, include share buttons, and of course, display your social icons in a visible place on every page.

Have you started actively monitoring Insights yet? Which metrics have yielded the most valuable business insights? Share your experience in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, GOIABA (Goiabarea)

More About: contributor, Facebook, facebook insights, features, Marketing, metrics

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/facebook-metrics-marketing/?utm_source=feedbur...