Web 2.0

Mollie Vandor is the Product Manager for Ranker.com and Media Director for Girls in Tech LA. You can find her on Twitter and on her blog, where she writes about the web, the world and what it’s like to be a geek chic chick.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes — lately, it seems like there’s a new natural disaster wreaking havoc on poor planet Earth every week. From our television sets to our Twitter streams, it’s impossible to ignore the devastation these disasters leave behind. And, no matter where you’re watching from, it’s hard not to feel just a little bit helpless in the face of such colossal catastrophes.

But when it comes to natural disasters, modern technology is making it easier than ever to take control by creating your own emergency response system — no high pitched beeping required. There are tons of tools to help you create emergency preparedness plans, keep in touch during a disaster, and get your life back after one strikes. Nothing will keep you safer or saner during a natural disaster than having a good plan in advance.

According to FEMA, the best way to avoid significant damage during a disaster is to prepare an emergency response plan in advance. The FEMA website is a great place to get that process started. In fact, they offer an easy checklist of items you should consider when putting together your plan: Escape routes, family communications, utility shut-off and safety, insurance and vital records, special needs, caring for animals, and safety skills. It seems like a lot, but fortunately, there are plenty of resources to help make all that planning much easier.

Figuring out your escape route is probably the top priority when it comes to emergency preparedness. And, making sure that your loved ones know where to go and how to meet up could help keep your family together when everything else is falling apart. That’s where Google’s MyMaps service comes in handy. MyMaps lets you plan a route using landmarks, lines, and shapes, and lets you easily share that route or access it on your mobile browser. Of course, the most reliable option in a disaster is still the lo-fi hard copy of that escape route. MyMaps lets you print perfect copies so you can laminate them and stick them everywhere from the fridge door to the kids’ backpacks.

And while you’re throwing things in those backpacks, also think about including an ID card, in case your child is separated from their caretaker during a disaster. You can easily order ID cards online at places like Life360, a site that offers multiple mobile and web-based emergency planning services, including ID cards for your kids and a messaging system that contacts your entire network of family and friends during a disaster.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of emergency preparedness apps. From the ICE app for iPhone and Android, which stores your emergency contacts and medical information, to the self-explanatory Emergency Preparedness Checklist (iPhone), there are plenty of quick, easy and mobile options to help you get a jump on your emergency planning.

Plus, if you share my proclivity for destroying any home improvement project you come within five feet of, there’s also an easy online guide to help you shut off your utilities, from the Washington state Department of Health. And, the only technical knowledge required is the ability to print the super-simple instructions and tape them up near your door.

One of the scariest parts of any emergency is not being able to reach the people you love — and knowing that the people you love might not be able to reach you. And, of course, you want to stay abreast of all the breaking news about whatever it is that’s going on. Fortunately, one of the best advantages of our constantly-connected world is that there are multiple channels for communication. When one channel goes down during a disaster, you might still be able to get through on another one.

The first thing to do is make sure you have a backup plan for keeping all your gadgets in good working order during a disaster. Now might be a good time to invest in a solar charger for your iPhone or Blackberry, for example — not to mention a hand-cranked emergency radio, flashlight and flares. Or, you could just hit up the Red Cross Store for a gadget that does all of the above, and charges your MP3 player too. If you’d rather just upgrade your existing gadgets, check out the Emergency Radio app, which turns your iPhone into a supercharged scanner for police, fire, NOAA and other emergency radio frequencies.

Even without any extra apps, your 3G-enabled phone will likely help you stay connected in case of an emergency. Even though phone lines may be down or jammed, the 3G network won’t necessarily be out as well. This is how Twitter status updates helped locate a missing person during the recent Chile earthquake. So, having an app for Twitter, Instant Messenger, or even Facebook on your mobile device might help you keep in touch with loved ones who can’t get through to you via more traditional means of communication. And, a quick status update telling everyone where you are and how you’re doing could help give loved ones peace of mind in the middle of the chaos that comes with a catastrophe.

Speaking of peace of mind, FEMA will actually e-mail you disaster updates in real-time, so you can stay up to date on the latest breaking disaster news. Most college campuses have similar services, so students — and their parents — can receive regular text messages and e-mails during an emergency. The FCC actually maintains a pretty good list of these services. And, of course, you should always know the right resources for specific information about the particular types of catastrophes that are common to your neck of the woods. For example, during the recent Hawaii tsunami warnings, residents could receive up-to-the-minute reports from a variety of sources, including NOAA.

So, bookmark your local emergency services sites, or add them to an RSS feed or special start page. Create a Twitter list of the people you trust for breaking news about your area, or set up an old fashioned phone tree using e-mail over 3G as a backup in case the phone lines go down. No matter what you decide to do, make sure you have plans in place for staying in touch across multiple means of communication. You never know what will work and what won’t if a disaster really does strike.

Once the immediate threat of a natural disaster has passed, you may find yourself facing an awful lot of cleanup, not to mention plenty of paperwork, as you try to recover your assets. This is why it’s important to catalog your stuff before that happens. This will make the process of an insurance claim much easier.

The first step in setting up a cataloging system is to get yourself organized. There are plenty of apps for that, and options for Blackberry users as well. Once you’re organized, you can start scanning all of your important possessions and papers into a web-based app, which will store them in the cloud. So, no matter what you lose in a disaster, you won’t lose your records too.

Use Home Inventory for iPhone or Star Home Inventory for Blackberry to track all of your stuff from the comfort of your mobile device. If you have a Mac, you can also use DeliciousMonster to scan all of your books, movies and more into your computer by their bar codes. Or, just hook up a standard barcode scanner directly to your laptop. Publish your stuff to the web to make sure your data is safe in case your desktop is destroyed. And, to really be on the safe side, create a Google Docs account, and back up your important insurance papers directly from your desktop.

Despite how far modern technology has come, we still haven’t figured out a perfect way to prevent natural disasters. Preparation is still the best defense. Proper planning means that if a disaster does strike, you’ll know what to do, where to go, and how to recover — which is some pretty powerful stuff indeed, even in the face of the forces of nature.

- 5 Ways to Use Twitter to Avoid a Backchannel Disaster
- How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data
- The Science of Building Trust With Social Media
- How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement
- 3 Ways Educators Are Embracing Social Technology

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, BradenGunem

Tags: disaster, emergency, how to, List, Lists, social media

The Super Bowl may be long over, but Brand Battle 2010 continues to rage on, as yet another commercial is bit by the controversy bug — this time one of those adorable spots from E-Trade featuring a talking baby named “Lindsay.”

According to the New York Post, actress Lindsay Lohan is suing the investment site on the grounds that the man-eating, substance-abusing baby in the commercial is based on her.

Lohan’s lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, is asking that the commercial be taken off the air and every copy of the offending spot be rounded up (which could now be more difficult given today’s coverage). The actress is also asking for $100 million.

According to Ovadia: “Many celebrities are known by one name only, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit… They used the name Lindsay…They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.”

Ovadia also says Lohan was mistreated because E-Trade didn’t get her approval nor offer her compensation for allegedly being referred to in the ad. Now, the lawyer says her client is owed $50 million in exemplary damages, as well as $50 million in compensatory damages.

Although Ovadia says that the spot — which debuted during the Super Bowl and aired during the Winter Olympics — helped garner E-Trade mucho money, it wasn’t one of the most popular ads to premiere. It didn’t rank tops with either online viewers or couch potatoes (although the talking baby series has racked up a lot of success in the past).

Still, today it joins a cadre of commercials that cleaned up on hits due to controversy — including the Tim Tebow spot, GoDaddy’s rejected “Lola” ad and men’s-only dating site ManCrunch’s similarly punted ad.

One could argue that by suing E-Trade, Lohan is calling even more attention to the ad in question. As of right now, the ad has nearly 2.5 million views on YouTube. It remains to be seen — most likely tomorrow — what effect this lawsuit has on further increasing visibility. But judging from the fact that it’s been cropping up all over the web since the litigious news hit, you can bet Lohan’s legal ire will ensure the vid’s virality for at least the remainder of this week.

Check out the vid below and let us know in the comments whether or not Lohan has a case.

Tags: legal, lindsay lohan, MARKETING, Super Bowl, viral video, youtube

Hulu struck a deal to host content from The NFL Network in January, including eight shows and highlights from every team in the National Football League. The network has been adding new content to the site ever since, and this week Hulu has posted an impressive 400 hours of NFL-related videos.

Fierce Online Video reports that Hulu plans to add 600 more hours before the next football season starts.

Sports enthusiasts are seeing a big boom in web video coverage; the NCAA college basketball league just launched a website that streams shareable clips from countless March Madness plays.

Meanwhile, Hulu is likely hoping deals like this one will — in tandem with its own in-house reality show If I Can Dream — help make up for the loss of two of its most popular shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Hulu saw a slight dip in viewership in the month of January, but maybe this vast library of NFL content will help pull the numbers back up.

[via Business Insider]

Tags: football, hulu, News, nfl, nfl network, sports, video

Despite CEO drama, plummeting traffic and even declining mobile website usage, MySpace Mobile for Android is the most popular social app in the Android Market and the third most popular downloaded application overall.

While Facebook might dominate social networking apps on the iPhone, Facebook for Android leaves much to be desired. It’s not as bad as it was six months ago, but it still pales in comparison to the offerings for BlackBerry — let alone the iPhone.

MySpace Mobile for Android on the other hand, integrates itself extremely well within the Google ecosystem and the Android platform. You can even update your status via voice, using a widget available in the MySpace app.

AndroidStats, a site that tracks the rankings in the Android Market, shows that MySpace Mobile for Android has consistently been a big winner for the platform. We think the great integration with the platform has something to do with that.

Let’s throw the question to Android users: What app do you prefer, Facebook or MySpace on your Android phone? Does strong mobile integration make a social network more appealing? Let us know!

Tags: android, myspace

Retweet.com, which put itself up for sale last month, has sold for $250,000 in an online auction on Flippa. The auction saw a fair amount of interest with 45 bids in total, but it appears that the winning party came in with a “buy it now” offer for $48,000 more than the current bid to take ownership of the Tweetmeme competitor.

Like Tweetmeme, the site aggregates the most popular links on Twitter, and also provides third-party websites with buttons that lets their visitors easily retweet articles. Although the service isn’t as popular as Tweetmeme, it has been able to accumulate respectable traffic, and it’s ideal name give it significant branding power. According to the company’s listing on Flippa, there is not yet any revenue.

At this point, we don’t know who the buyer is, though we heard rumblings last month that a major social news site was interested. We’re looking for more information and have contacted the team behind Retweet.com for details. We’ll update if we learn more.

[thanks Matt Binder for the tip]

Tags: retweet, tweetmeme, twitter

Palm has announced the beta release of its Plug-in Developer Kit — or PDK — a new component in the webOS SDK that will make for dramatically better gaming on the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi and all future webOS devices.

Originally announced back in January at the CES show, the release’s venue — the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco — is as much an indication of Palm’s gaming ambitions for its platform as the release itself.

The PDK now lets developers use C and C++ and the OpenGL ES graphics API for 3D graphics and means, in Palm’s words, that developers who have built games for other platforms can now bring their titles to the webOS platform.

Put even more simply, it’s a way of luring developers to the webOS platform offering an easy way to convert iPhone games, for example, to work on Palm handsets, therefore bolstering the webOS’s available apps with popular titles from other platforms.

Thanks to early access to the PDK, some developers (EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Laminar Research) are already offering 3D titles via the Palm App Catalog, however new games created with the public beta PDK won’t actually work on Palm phones until a webOS update is pushed out some time “during the middle of the year”.

Those on the dev side of the fence can head over to the Developer Portal and download the Palm webOS PDK now.

Tags: games, palm, webOS

Sony Computer Entertainment is proudly shouting “FIRST” (YouTube commenter-style) with an announcement that claims the PlayStation Network is the first online service to sell high-definition movies from all the major movie studios: Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Walt Disney, Warner Bros and, of course, Sony Pictures.

Some of the content has been around for a while — for example, NBC Universal videos debuted on the PlayStation Network one year ago tomorrow — but PlayStation owners have access to a few new movies today.

They include Up, G-Force, Earth, Star Trek, Paranormal Activity, Zoolander, This Is It, 2012, District 9, Zombieland, Inglourious Basterds, Couples Retreat, Public Enemies, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and The Wizard of Oz.

All the studios but Fox are represented there; Fox’s new contributions (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Jennifer’s Body and Fantastic Mr. Fox) will debut on the PSN this Saturday, March 13.

PSN competitors like Apple’s iTunes Store and Apple TV set-top box and Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace and Xbox 360 console offer formidable libraries of on-demand video from the major movie studios, but Sony is boasting that it’s the only one to offer HD content from all of them.

In a time when the market is terribly fragmented between so many different formats and services, posting HD content from every major studio is actually a notable feat. Sony will have more firsts on the horizon, too; the PlayStation 3 is going 3D soon.

Apple and Microsoft have had their own opportunities to say “first,” though. The Xbox 360 streamed Netflix movies first, and both Apple’s iTunes Store and the Xbox 360 offered movie downloads and rentals before the PlayStation Network did.

Tags: 20th century fox, Film, hd, Movies, nbc universal, paramount pictures, playstation 3, playstation network, playstation portable, PS3, PSP, sony, Sony Pictures, sony playstation 3, Sony PSP, video games, video on demand, walt disney pictures, warner bros

New location-based social search tool FourWhere shows Foursquare tips and comments using Google Maps so you can search and discover what everyone is saying about nearby places.

Users simply input a location or address into FourWhere, right-click (control click) on the map and select display preferences. The map can display all comments nearby, all venues in the vicinity and/or remove venues without tips.

It’s a simple app with a powerful purpose. For those of us preparing to journey out to Austin for SXSW, FourWhere’s release couldn’t have come at a better time. A search around the downtown area yields comments with insightful information about restaurants and bars. Essentially the application offers a map-based search experience for socialites looking to plan a fun night out.

FourWhere currently only pulls in data from Foursquare, but Sysomos, the company behind the app, has plans to integrate more social data in the future.

Tags: foursquare, fourwhere, location-based, sysomos

Facebook’s move into location has seemed inevitable for some time, and it now appears that the company will officially reveal its plans at next month’s Facebook developer conference –- f8.

According to The New York Times, the social network will incorporate location in two ways: (1) its own features for sharing location and (2) APIs to let other apps — like Foursquare and Gowalla –- offer location services to Facebook users.

Presumably, Facebook will make sure to address privacy issues with its location features — for example, perhaps with settings that allow you to share your location only with a select group of friends. The Times’ report doesn’t detail the specifics of such features, though it notes that the social network updated its privacy policy late last year in preparation for a location launch.

Facebook will be rolling out its location features to an enormous user base — there are now more than 400 million users of the social network in total, 100 million of which access the site via mobile regularly. The company also has its own native apps for all of the major mobile platforms. All of this gives Facebook’s location features an enormous edge over the competition.

The Times’ report suggests that the competition isn’t the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla, however, but rather Google and its huge base of local small business advertisers. Of course, the startups aren’t ignoring this opportunity either — earlier today, Foursquare shared details of upcoming features it plans to release to help local businesses utilize checkin data.

With Facebook entering the space, though, the other players will need to look to create value in ways beyond checkins and knowing where your friends are located at any given point in time. That’s why Foursquare seems to be so focused on partnerships and gaming, while Gowalla is making moves (as recently as last night) in virtual goods.

In any event, location remains the huge trend so far in 2010, and literally each day seems to bring new indications of which way it will all play out.

Tags: facebook, foursquare, social networking, trending

Mashable and the Google Wave team are proud to announce the Google Wave API Challenge, a month-long competition to create exciting new Google Wave extensions.

Google Wave’s latest updated clean API and new extension abilities allow for faster development, more opportunities for integrations and lots of exciting potential for many new Google Wave use cases. We invite developers from around the world to showcase their latest extensions.

Over the next several weeks, Mashable and the Google Wave team will be showcasing and discussing the most interesting submissions.

There will be 3 voting categories: Most Fun, Most Useful and Best Use of the Embed API. We’ll then pick a Judge’s Choice as the overall winner.

The winning developer/development team will receive 2 unlocked Nexus Ones, see their extension featured on Mashable AND receive free passes to the Google I/O conference.

4 Step Submission Process
Step 1: Developers install the “Mashable submitty extension” from the public read-only wave
Step 2: After installing this, you’ll get a “New Mashable Submission” in your new wave menu
Step 3: Just use our “Mashable Submitty” Google Extension and fill out the form.
Step 4: After approving valid entries, we’ll create a public discussion wave with entries including a voting gadget.

Timeline:
Submissions Open: March 8th, 2010
Submissions Close: April 9th, 2010 11:59 PM EST
Public Voting on Top 20 submissions: April 12th, 2010 – April 19th, 2010
Winner Announced: April 21st, 2010

Rules:
• Developer or Developer Team (Preferred max of 4 names submitted)
• Existing Extensions are eligible only if they use the new API (ports to the new API are fine)
• Full Credit for any work due must be entered in April 9th, 2010
• Over 18 to receive prize
• Final winning submission will be judged exclusively by Mashable and Google Wave team

Tags: contest, Google, Google Wave, google wave api challenge

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: ShiftPlanning

Quick Pitch: ShiftPlanning Provides free employee scheduling tools to businesses of all sizes.

Genius Idea: ShiftPlanning is a web-based tool for companies that want a way to easily and efficiently manage work schedules and availability.

Schedule management, especially for companies or individuals who work remotely, can be difficult. Sure, you can use stuff like Google Docs and Basecamp for setting company-wide events, but once you have more than a handful of employees, keeping track of all that information can be tough.

ShiftPlanning is a suite of shift and scheduling tools that both employers and employees can use. You can use the system to set up multiple schedules, trade shifts, handle vacation days and requests, and to create a record of availability.

We like that ShiftPlanning doesn’t keep your data behind its walled garden; you can print or export files, access the site from your mobile phone and even integrate the system into your own website.

ShiftPlanning is free and worth checking out if you have problems managing schedules and employee shifts in your business or organization. What tools do you use to manage schedules? Let us know!

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).”

Tags: business, scheduling, shiftplanning, web apps

3D is set to be big this year, and Samsung is hoping to tempt early adopters with a promotional offer that attempts to combat one of 3D TV’s main problems — lack of content — by bundling in a 3D movie with certain sales.

The promotion takes the form of a new “Starter Kit” that offers U.S. consumers the chance to enjoy 3D movies in their own living rooms, rather than having to head to nearest cinema to check out the eye-popping action.

In 2010, Samsung will offer a range of 3D-capable TVs, including the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series. Still, just two models will actually hit shop shelves this month: 46-inch and 55-inch models of the LED C7000.

The promotional Starter Kit will see anyone who buys a 2010 Samsung 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray Player or Home Theater System getting two pairs of Samsung 3D active glasses and a 3D version of DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters vs. Aliens on Blu-ray with 3D Shrek promised in the second half of the year.

As well as 3D abilities, the new LED TVs offer Internet@TV connectivity with the new Samsung App Store on board. To give you an idea of what you’ll have to cough up to go 3D in the comfort of your own home, pricing for the TVs alone ranges from $380 to $7,000.

Samsung’s 3D range arrives ahead of Sony’s due this summer and just a day ahead of Panasonic’s, due to launch in conjunction with Best Buy in the States on March 10.

Will you be splashing out for three-dimensional television? Let us know in the comments below.

Tags: 3D, 3dtv, dreamworks, samsung, televisions

The Foursquare platform currently caters to consumers and offers businesses the ability to provide specials. Today, however, we’re learning more information about a business dashboard — complete with checkin analytics — that’s being gradually rolled out to business owners.

While the dashboard is still an alpha product, it’s already able to make the distinction between staff and customers, and tracks checkins on a daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day or all-time basis.

Data includes total checkins, unique visitors, male-to-female ratio, social media-sharing (i.e. showing how many users are sending their checkins to Twitter), top visitors and checkin time breakdown. Users can opt-out of sharing their checkin data via settings section of the website.

According to The New York Times’ Bits blog, “Business owners will also be able to offer instant promotions to try to engage new customers and keep current ones,” and, “there will also be a Staff page available to each business that will allow employees to interact directly with customers using social networks.”

When we followed up with Tristan Walker of Foursquare we also learned that as of right now 30 venue owners have access to the new tool, which the company has been testing for a week. In the coming weeks, Foursquare plans to introduce the insightful utility to all businesses running specials with the company — close to 1,000 businesses.

This is just the beginning of the business dashboard, as Walker tells us that the company has plans to continue to innovate and integrate real-world phenomena with its valuable checkin data. For example, Walker tells us that Foursquare is “thinking about … correlating checkins with weather patterns,” so “for a merchant offering incentives there may be a way for them to offer better incentives on rainy days.”

But that’s just scratching the service. Remember Tasti D-Lite’s re-imagining of the customer loyalty program? The new TreatCard uses Foursquare’s API to automatically check customers into venues and tie purchase information with rewards. Tasti D-Lite’s Foursquare checkin/purchase setup sets the stage for the day when the business dashboard will include purchase information, to which Walker says, “Once we can add purchase information on top of checkins things can get pretty interesting.”

This is all fine and dandy for the neighborhood coffee shop or local bar, and very much supersedes what Yelp provides or Google offers businesses via Place Pages, but what about the Starbucks of the world? Clearly this type of analysis — if it could scale — would be killer for big businesses interested in tracking their trending venues and discerning what works by location.

Walker admits that the company will need to make adjustments to allow for aggregation, but that the dashboard will be for everyone. And while he wouldn’t give us any names, he did say, “We’ve been talking with quite a few [large corporations] who are excited about the potential for this.”

At the end of the day, the business features further contribute to Foursquare changing the world as we know it. In a previous post on the subject matter, I wrote that Foursquare was redefining what it meant to be a regular and pioneering a deeper connection between place and patron. Given that businesses using Foursquare will soon be able to interact with their checked-in customers, those two assertions are now more true than ever.

Just as businesses see a huge advantage to interacting with potential and existing customers (and naysayers) on Twitter, so too will they experience the same advantages on Foursquare, but with even more incentives and a plethora of data at their fingertips.

[img credits: MariSheibely, Bits]

Tags: business dashboard, foursquare, MARKETING, social media

Tweetie for Mac is the newest bonus edition to the MacHeist nanoBundle 2, which gives Mac users an opportunity to buy a variety of software for a discounted price. Additionally, buyers will also get early access to the pre-public beta for Tweetie 2 for Mac, plus a free upgrade to Tweetie 2 once it is released.

When Loren “Atebits” Brichter released Tweetie 2 for the iPhone last fall, one of the biggest new features in the app was that it was completely rewritten in such a way that the desktop version of Tweetie for Mac and the iPhone version could share the same codebase. From a development standpoint, that means that adding new features to both apps would be easier and more streamlined.

Tweetie for Mac is still a great Twitter client — especially for users like me who like to avoid Adobe AIR whenever possible — but it has grown a bit long-in-the-tooth, when compared with either its iPhone counterpart or some other newer Mac alternatives. That’s why getting early access to Tweetie 2 for Mac is so compelling. It’s a nice rejoinder to fans who have wanted to get updates on the status of Tweetie for Mac, while also offering up some promotion for the new version in the process.

One note about how MacHeist works: Users get licenses for most apps immediately upon purchase, but some apps have an “unlock” number that needs to be reached before serials are given out. Now, this is largely a marketing technique (I’ve never seen any MacHeist that didn’t end with all apps being unlocked for all buyers), but you might not get your Tweetie for Mac license until tomorrow afternoon (or whenever the “magic” number of sales hits).

MacHeist is $19.95 for eight apps (including Tweetie for Mac), plus you can get three other apps for free by taking part in a MacHeist “Tweetblast.” The sale runs through tomorrow night and the Tweetie 2 alpha preview is expected to start sometime next month.

What is your favorite Twitter client for Mac?

Tags: apple, mac apps, mac software, macheist, software, tweetie, tweetie 2 for mac, tweetie for mac

New Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges reprises his role as arcade regular and computer programming genius Flynn in the trailer for Tron Legacy, which just made its official web debut today. The film is a long-anticipated sequel to the 1980s geek classic Tron, and this is the first full-length trailer.

The film (or at least the trailer) focuses on Flynn’s son, who goes looking for his father in the now-abandoned arcade that was the launching point for the first movie, only to find him in a more technologically advanced version of the fantastic and dangerous virtual world introduced in the first film (which won much acclaim for special effects).

Since the franchise has always been about the latest in filmmaking technology, Tron Legacy will be presented in 3D. A 3D trailer actually premiered before select showings of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Tron fans traveled from distant cities to see it. The movie is also trending on Twitter right now, so we think this has the makings of a hit.

Disney plans to release Tron Legacy on December 17, believing that it will draw a big audience during the lucrative holiday season.

We know many Mashable readers are going to be interested in seeing this film, but does it have any chance of living up to the iconic original? Watch the trailer and leave a comment letting us and other readers know what you think.

Tags: 3D, disney, Film, jeff bridges, Movies, trailer, tron legacy, video

Rebecca Zook is an online female math tutor who has been helping students get math into their brains for seven years. She blogs about learning at Triangle Suitcase.

Over half a million votes were cast to decide Barbie’s newest career. But even though Computer Engineer Barbie was developed in consultation with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, the new doll’s appearance has sparked controversy.

While some have embraced coder Barbie, others have attacked the concept, saying that her pink laptop, sparkly leggings, and trendy glasses are “too feminine” to be realistic.

The critics imply that real coders aren’t feminine, and feminine coders aren’t real. But women shouldn’t feel like they have to stop being feminine to work in technology.

That’s right. The first coder was a lady. Ada Lovelace, over a century ahead of her time, is widely considered to be the first computer programmer. She was the first person to conceptualize and articulate what computers were capable of doing, and the first to foresee that computers could create artificial intelligence, generate graphics, and create music.

So, is Barbie’s outfit really that unrealistic? If the very first person to conceptualize a computer did so while wearing a girly up-do and a frilly gown, why can’t someone write great code while wearing pink platform crocs and a t-shirt that spells “BARBIE” in binary?

This false dichotomy — that you have to choose between being feminine and “looking the part” of a mathematician or scientist — might be part of what turns girls off from math and science in the first place.

Or maybe girls don’t aim for careers in math and science because they don’t see role models. Even Ada Lovelace had role models. Her mom, the “Princess of Parallelograms,” loved math and gave Lovelace a very intensive math education. And Lovelace was also mentored by legendary female science writer and polymath Mary Somerville.

Or maybe girls are afraid of being the only woman in their technology courses or workplaces. If that’s the case, their concerns are certainly warranted. Not only are fewer women entering the information technology field, but more women are leaving the field mid-career.

A recent Harvard Business Review report, The Athena Factor, notes that “52% of highly qualified females working for SET [science, engineering, and technology] companies quit their jobs, driven out by hostile work environments and extreme job pressures.” These women report that they lack mentors and feel intense isolation in the workplace.

In 2010, maybe Computer Engineer Barbie would feel uncomfortable writing code on a pink laptop that matched her glasses in a workplace where she was outnumbered by men 25-to-1. But perhaps we should aspire to create a world where Computer Engineer Barbie and her gloriously pink accessories could realistically exist. Allowing a vision of an ultra-feminine computer engineer might, even subconsciously, open girls — and the rest of society — up to the possibility.

As a female math tutor, I used to feel the need to “tone down” my feminine style. I’d wear black slacks when working with my students for fear of appearing “unprofessional.” But then I decided to show my true fashion colors and wear my homemade dresses and sparkly barrettes when tutoring.

Since then, some kids have been openly relieved when they met me and found I didn’t look like their stereotype of a math tutor. The “math geek” stereotype in their brains was more intimidating and less fun than the real-life tutor wearing fuzzy pink boots.

You don’t have to choose between looking feminine and being good at math, science, and engineering. We need all kinds of people, all kinds of minds, and all kinds of geeks to solve our technology problems.

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- 10 Popular Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers
- 5 Must-Have Geek Collectibles

Tags: barbie, careers, coder, computer engineer, girls, Kids, mathematics, programming, Science, tech, trending, women

Cisco has announced a new routing system that it says is going to speed up the Internet in a big way. According to the company, Cisco CRS-3 — currently being tested by AT&T — is three times faster than its predecessor, which was introduced in 2004.

The company offers a few intriguing sound bites about the CRS-3 and what it enables:

- the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second

- every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously

- every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.

Of course, that’s not for end users, but ultimately allows the telecom companies (Cisco’s customers) to route traffic around the Internet faster. Speaking to the reasoning behind the new speed push, Cisco CEO John Chambers says in the video below that he expects Internet traffic to grow at “200-500 percent per year” as bandwidth-intensive activities like downloading and streaming video continue to explode.

At the same time, Google has its own ideas for speeding up the Internet, and is currently looking to test its own fiber network to deliver 1 gigabit per second Internet connections (and Topeka, Kansas wants in!). One way or another, it looks like the Internet is only going to continue to get faster.

Here’s Chambers’s video and another with more of the nitty-gritty details of CRS-3:

Tags: cisco, crs-3

Launching in beta today, Go Tribal tackles the other side of the equation from formal event services like Meetup or Plancast by helping members organize informal group plans. By identifying when users are free and available to hang out, Go Tribal hopes to eliminate some of the hassle involved in coordinating friends for spontaneous group activities.

Targeted primarily towards women, Go Tribal’s goal is to facilitate meaningful offline interaction via simple technology that lets users see which of their friends is “down to hang out” at any given time. Members can set status indicators for upcoming dates, allowing peer groups to identify the best times to arrange informal get-togethers. Once a group has agreed upon a physical meetup, members can coordinate on the specifics of time and place, plus use existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter to further socialize the event and send out more invites.

We spoke with Founder and CEO Shruti Challa about the service, which will be open to the first 10,000 signups in the U.S. for now. She said the inspiration for Go Tribal arose naturally out of the young founding team (which also includes Chris Baclig, Eric Ma and Amara Humphry), who upon recent graduation from Stanford discovered a lack of tools for maintaining existing friendships in the physical world.

“Technology seemed to be getting further away from creating and sustaining relationships in real life. Facebook and Twitter seemed distant, and we wanted to use technology to help create a physical connection,” Challa said of the new startup.

Future plans for Go Tribal include integrating more contextual local search and information tools to help members decide where to spend their group time once they settle on a date and time to get together. The startup also plans to eventually work more closely with businesses to help groups influence decisions when they’re actually being made — imagine a coalesced social group with some bargaining power to “shop around” for potential deals and experiences that clubs or venues might be willing to offer in exchange for securing business from a large group.

With an interesting twist on local and informal group event organization and a smart road map ahead, Go Tribal is a social service to watch. If you have a chance to check out the service, let us know what you think. What features would you want to see in a service facilitating informal meetups?

Tags: Events, facebook, go tribal, informal plans, meetup, social media, startups, twitter

Ask any Kindle owner about browsing the web on the device, and you’ll get the same answer: Well, you can do it, but… And then you’ll hear how abysmal the browsing experience really is. Having tried it myself, it made me want to whip out my iPhone and its Safari at each turn.

Now, the folks at Webmonkey have noticed that Amazon has posted a job listing (the listing has been online for quite a while, but has only now been noticed), looking for a software development engineer to “design and implement new features” on an “innovative Embedded Web Browser.”

While it’s the current Kindle’s monochrome, slowish screen will never provide a beautiful browsing experience, improvements could definitely be made to the current browser. With the iPad coming to the U.S. market in less than a month, Amazon needs to do damage control in all areas in which Apple’s device is superior to the Kindle, and building a better web browser is probably a priority.

The real question, however, is this: Will users prefer the readability of the e-ink screen or the more beautiful (but perhaps less enjoyable when you’re reading a book), backlit color LCD? Or will a new technology emerge, connecting the best of both worlds? For example, Kindle doesn’t have a touchscreen, but Sony’s e-readers have shown that it is possible to have one on an e-ink display, at the expense of some glare. We’ll have some (but not all) answers when the iPad finally hits the market.

In the meantime, tell us what you think. Will Kindle (with its current e-ink screen) ever provide a good or even great browsing experience? Please write your opinion in the comments.

Tags: amazon, browser, Kindle, trending

A couple of days ago Foursquare’s iPhone application disappeared from the iPhone App Store due to a “hiccup.” If you doubted that was true, worry no more, as the application is back in the store.

Here’s the official explanation of what happened:

“Last week, Foursquare accidentally released to the App Store a new version of its app before it was totally ready. It was pulled shortly after, unfortunately, many users had already went through the update, and were left stuck with a non-functioning app.”

The version currently available is 1.6.1, but the folks at Foursquare say that the redesigned 1.7 update should appear in a few days.

Tags: app store, apple, foursquare, iphone, Mobile 2.0, mobile app