Best of the Week #220

It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more

Apple Flirting with Epix for Streaming Video From 3 Major Studios [VIDEO]

As rumors continue to run rampant about the alleged Apple HDTV set, now there’s a tantalizing clue about programming Apple might use to entice people to buy and watch such a device.

Reuters found out Apple is currently in negotiations with Epix, a studio-backed company that streams relatively… read more

At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Tech is in the House

Rachel Sklar is a writer and social entrepreneur based in New York. She is the founder of Change The Ratio, which increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech and new media. Follow her on Twitter @rachelsklar.

This weekend kicks off one of Washington D.C.’s biggest events: the White House Correspondents’… read more

Prepo: Take the Drudgery Out of Screen Resolution Optimization

If you create apps in addition to using them, then you know that it can be a real pain to optimize your artwork for various devices. Prepo is a free application that aims to make the task of converting retina display artwork to ‘normal’ app artwork less tedious.

Does it… read more

Free Online Human Translation Service Takes On Babelfish, Google Translate

Had enough of machine-based online translation services such as Babelfish or Google Translate?

Ackuna is a crowdsourced translation project, connecting individuals around the world with human translators who can give you just the right phrasing. The free-to-use site is a side project of Translation Services USA.

“We’re building a… read more

HelloFax Turns Google Drive Into a Fax Machine

HelloFax got one step closer to its goal of eliminating the fax machine this week. The service has been integrated into Google Drive.

HelloFax’s Google Drive integration allows you to fax any document from Google Drive, as well as receive faxes from others in a special HelloFax folder within the drive…. read more

Jack White Concert Asks Viewers to Create Digital Photo Mosaic

Fans of White Stripes rocker Jack White and his newly released solo album, Blunderbuss, will get to revel in an interactive live streamed concert Friday night starting at 9 p.m. ET.

Thirteen cameras will capture the action on stage at Webster Hall in New York City, and viewers tuning into… read more

Yahoo Escalates Patent War With Facebook

Yahoo just took its war of lawsuits with Facebook to the next level, adding two more patent-infringement claims to the 10 it filed for back in March.

The company also accused Facebook of not having a good-faith belief in the counterclaim it filed almost a month ago.

“Today Yahoo! filed additional… read more

What Do You Do When Your Co-Founder Quits? [VIDEO]

Deciding to leave your full-time job for your startup isn’t easy. But what happens when one founder is on board and the other would rather continue to take home a steady paycheck?

That issue plays itself out in the third episode of TechStars, where one company’s co-founder decides… read more

How AMC Chose the Artwork for ‘The Pitch’

As AMC prepares for the premiere for its new original series The Pitch, the network faced a unique challenge — how to develop an ad campaign about a TV show about ad campaigns.

We spoke with Linda Schupack, EVP of Marketing at AMC, about pitch process for the key art around… read more

Microsoft: 30 Years of Hardware and a Few Surprises

Mice-a-Palooza

More Microsoft mice than I’ve ever seen in one spot.

Click here to view this gallery.

Microsoft has been making… read more

Facebook App Fosters Community for Breast Cancer Patients

A new Facebook app, Circle of Support, provides a rare support community for people living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

This secure Facebook community allows people suffering from MBC to share their struggles and receive support from their friends and family. Recent research by Genentech, the company that created the… read more

Failure to Pitch Perfect MLB2K12 Game Leads to Hilarious Tweets

Players are expressing their woes online after failing to pitch a perfect game on the recently-released MLB 2K12. Gamers who successfully pitch perfection can compete for a chance to win a trip to New York City and a million dollars.

The MLB 2K12 Perfect Game Challenge Tournament invites players… read more

FaceVault App Brings Facial Recognition to iOS [VIDEO]

A new app called FaceVault brings facial recognition and pattern-based unlocking to iOS.

It works just like Facial Unlock on Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich, but there’s a key difference — Apple is much more strict about what goes on its lockscreen.

Though Apple had previously rejected this kind of facial… read more

This Projector Lets You Watch TV, Play Games on Any Wall

The Summer Gadget Series is presented by the Galaxy Nexus from Sprint. Android 4.0, Google Wallet and Google Play make it pure Google. Truly Unlimited data from Sprint makes it unstoppable. Check it out.

Product: WowWee Cinemin Slice Pico Projector

Price: $429.99

What It’s Good For: Projecting movies, video games and photos onto… read more

How Mark Cuban Does Business [VIDEO]

Jesse Draper is creator and host of “The Valley Girl Show” through which she’s become a spokesperson for startups and helped pioneer the way of new media content distribution. Formerly a Nickelodeon star, Draper is now CEO of Valley Girl™ where she oversees the show and runs… read more

NBA Playoff Teams’ Seasons in Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

The NBA’s lockout-shortened regular season has come to a close and the 2012 playoffs tip-off Saturday. It was a pretty remarkable season on the court — LeBron James’s statistical genius, Jeremy Lin‘s magical run and Blake Griffin’s thunderous dunks being just a few of many highlights.

But pro basketball had… read more

Simplified Money Management with Savings

These days, there’s literally an app for everything: keeping recipes, managing projects, invoicing customers, and managing one’s finances. Money management is an especially popular app category now that people can simplify budget tracking and analyze both earnings and expenses all in one window.

We’ve reviewed some of the popular Mac finance… read more

Google Drive is Finally Here!

It has been a long time rumor that Google was going to release some kind of cloud stoage product akin to the likes of Dropbox or iCloud. It does make sense, after all; Google was the company that changed email by offering an unprecidented 1GB of storage for email all… read more

Mashable Photo Challenge: How Do You Spend Your Lunch Break?

Lunch is a part of our daily routine. Whether you spend the time at your desk cramming in some extra work, or you’re at home relaxing in front of the TV, we want you to share a moment from your lunch break for this week’s Mashable photo challenge. So, when it’s time… read more

Type ‘Zerg Rush’ Into Google for a Pleasant Surprise

Google is giving us another reason to goof off on a Friday with an Easter egg related to the popular game StarCraft.

If you type “Zerg Rush” into Google, the “O’s” in Google take over the page. If you double click, your cursor turns into a plus sign. Click on… read more

Cloud Storage from Google – Google Drive

A few days ago, Google added another weapon to its arsenal – Google Drive. Simply put, Drive is Google’s version of cloud storage – say, Dropbox meets Google Docs.

As with any other cloud storage service, Google Drive lets you store your data online, edit/modify it as per your… read more

Zoom It – Take a Really Close Look!

We all love Macs. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing here and you wouldn’t be reading. I especially love my 27″ iMac with its shiny and huge display, which even lets me display all my Photoshop work including an insane number of palettes. It’s awesome, but there’s one drawback: sometimes, I… read more

The Power of Your Emails in Mobile Devices

Email marketing is the most popular trend of today’s business world. It is one of the simplest, yet most successful, ways to market your business. The core aim of email marketing is to reach out to the maximum number of customers and market your business. This helps you reach many… read more

No to the Cookie Law

A newly launched site has dubbed the upcoming EU Cookie Law “ridiculous,” echoing the sentiments of a growing number of voices across the internet. As these protests grow louder, No Cookie Law aims to raise awareness of the EU cookie law and hopefully increase the chance of changes… read more

This $20 Trillion Rock Could Turn a Startup Into Earth’s Richest Company

Meet Amun 3554. Doesn’t look like much, right? Little more than a mile wide, it’s one of the smallest M-class (metal-bearing) asteroids yet discovered. Unless it ever decides to smash into us — a theoretical possibility, but extremely unlikely over the next few centuries — it will continue orbiting the… read more

Meet the 80-Year-Old Grandma on a Quest for 80,000 Twitter Followers

When the poet Dylan Thomas wrote of growing old, “do not go gently into that good night,” it’s a safe bet he didn’t have Twitter in mind. But Josephine Lamberti does.

The 80-year-old Staten Island grandma is, as her @J_DIMPS Twitter bio puts it, on a quest for “80K followers… read more

Major Video Game Villains to Appear in a Disney Movie

Wreck-It Ralph, a 3D computer-animated Disney movie due out Nov. 2, will feature cameos from the gaming world’s most-beloved bad guys.

Although the star-studded comedic film stars the 9-foot, 643-pound video game character Ralph, be on the lookout for villains from Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Mega Man,… read more

Airbnb Launches Match: A Booking Service that Makes More Sense

Airbnb users may have booked 4 million nights of accommodation in 2011, but the room-renting startup didn’t make it easy until now.

The company launched a new booking process on Thursday called “Match” that aims to make searching and booking rooms more efficient. Instead of asking you to find rooms through… read more

7 Major Apple Products Revealed at WWDC

Apple announced its 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference on Wednesday, to be held at San Francisco’s Moscone West from June 11 to 15. The company often uses the conference to announce key products, and if years past are any guide, there’s a possibility this summer will bring us more exciting news… read more

Text Message Alerts Mean More Kids Get Flu Vaccines

Text messaging may be the best approach to encourage people — especially in low-income communities — to get flu vaccines.

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) says a pilot program that asked parents in low-income communities to get their children vaccinated was successful in increasing… read more

89 Awesome Photography Links and Photographs

Never one to spend too much time lounging, the Toad is always searching the internet for tutorials, great photography and interesting blogs to share with everyone.  This week’s list contains a set of links to some truly incredible pieces of art posted by some truly talented artists.  We really hope… read more

4 Hot New Events in Business, Dev, Social Media and PR

From digital advertising conferences to programming hackathons and everything in between, you’ll definitely find a swanky locale to suit your professional and personal interests on Mashable’s new Events Board. Whether you’re an event organizer or an event-goer, our Events Board is an essential resource for helping you build relationships, engage… read more

Why Apple’s CEO Is Right About ‘Refrigerator-Toasters’ — and Laptop-Tablets

Few people have the kind of clout that their off-the-cuff asides qualify as world news.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is such a person. His ad-libbed comment during this week’s company earnings call about “convergence” devices has inspired more online buzz than a Kardashian marriage.

Answering a question about whether an Apple… read more

CISPA Cybersecurity Bill Passes House, With Some Amendments

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, cleared the House of Representatives on a 248-168 vote late Thursday afternoon after several hours of debate and amending.

CISPA’s intention is to allow private companies to share information about cybersecurity threats with one another and with the federal… read more

StumbleUpon Hits 25 Million Users — And is Gaining 1 Million a Month

StumbleUpon passed the 25 million user mark earlier this week — that’s about one million users every month since it announced it had reached 20 million users in October.

The discovery service has existed in some form since 2001. It accepted its first round of funding in 2006, was purchased by… read more

Google Probe: Meet the FTC’s Secret Weapon

SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Trade Commission has hired an outside litigator to lead its antitrust probe of Google, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Thursday during a visit to the agency’s‘s Western Region office here.

The search giant is getting some serious treatment. This is the first time in at… read more

Brought Your Kids to Work? Send Us Your Photos

Technology Editor Pete Pachal gives his son a tour of Mashable HQ

Click here to view this gallery.

Thursday… read more

Amazon Stock Surges on Strong First Quarter Results

Internet retailer Amazon beat analysts’ estimates for its first quarter on Thursday, prompting a 15% surge in its stock price in after-hours trading.

Net income for the quarter dropped 35% to $130 million, or $0.28 per share, compared with its 2011 figures of $201 million, or $0.44 per share.

Revenue, however,… read more

Groupon CEO Drinks Too Much Beer, Says His Site Needs to ‘Grow Up’

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason told company employees during a town hall meeting Wednesday that the daily deal site needs to grow up — right after apologizing for drinking too much beer during the meeting.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the 31-year-old CEO said the company doesn’t “have any margin for… read more

Kindle Fire Takes 54% of Android Tablet Market [STUDY]

Amazon’s Kindle Fire has taken 54.4% of the Android tablet market, leaving the number two in the category — Samsung Galaxy Tab — in the dust, according to comScore.

The Kindle Fire, introduced in November, nearly doubled its share over the last two months, comScore reports. Meanwhile, Galaxy Tab, which had… read more

Zynga’s Q1 Report Shows a Company Thriving

There’s no question about it: people love to play Zynga games. The company’s latest financial report reflects its growing fan base.

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) announced its financial results on Thursday for the quarter ending March 31, 2012, and the results are impressive: Q1 revenue of $321 million, up 32%… read more

25 ‘Green’ Photos From the Mashable Community

Sunday, April 22 marked the 42nd annual Earth Day, and more than 500 million people in 175 countries took the time to focus on the environment. In the spirit of Earth Day, we asked you to send us a photo that represented the idea of green for this week’s Mashable… read more

Children, Puppies and Webby Awards, Oh My!

Mashable is very excited to be nominated for a Webby Award in the business category!  Today is the final day to vote and we’d greatly appreciate your help.

VOTE HERE FOR MASHABLE

While we focus on staying on top of the latest business news, we also know how to have fun!

Today, Mashable took part in “Take… read more

Etsy: A Beginner’s Guide to the Crafty Ecommerce Site

Sure, Etsy‘s been around since 2005, but not everyone is hip to the ecommerce site. No worries, we’ve provided an overview of all the great features Etsy has to offer. Just don’t blame us when you’ve logged your fifth straight hour browsing refab couch cushions. It’s been known to happen.

Etsy… read more

10 Funniest Sketch Comedy Channels on YouTube

1. Funny or Die

… read more

Google Translate Draws 200 Million Users Each Month

Google announced on Thursday that its popular language translator service Google Translate now boasts 200 million monthly users, many of whom are accessing it outside the U.S. and via mobile devices.

The news — which comes just two days before Google Translate’s sixth anniversary — shows an increasing desire to communicate… read more

12 Mysterious Google Maps Sightings

1. The Badlands Guardian

This natural formation in Alberta, Canada is known as the Badlands Guardian and looks strikingly… read more

50 Remarkable Examples Of Inspiring Typography

Knowing how much of a hot commodity typography is for the designers and the design community; we decided to showcase a huge collection of innovative and creative typography examples for our readers. Today, typography is not only the art of rearranging the typefaces rather it has become a broad medium… read more

If You Use Lightroom, Do You Need Photoshop CS6?

I’m in sunny (sorry, cloudy and maybe rainy) LA today teaching my Lightroom seminar, but I wanted to do a quick post about some questions I got the other day in my Minneapolis seminar. I had a few people ask me what was new for Photographers in Photoshop CS6 and… read more

Gamification And UX: Where Users Win Or Lose

The gaming industry is huge, and it can keep its audience consumed for hours, days and even weeks. Some play the same game over and over again — and occasionally, they even get out their 15-year-old Nintendo 64 to play some Zelda.

Now, I am not a game designer. I actually… read more

Elegant Invoicing with Totals

These days, many people may do freelance work and regular contracting or business that requires invoicing. Getting paid is undeniably one of the most important parts of any business and invoicing is a key component of that process. Long gone are the days of handwriting invoices and mailing them. Now we have… read more

Breezi: Website Design Sans Effort

Website creation nowadays can be a slightly gruelling task, especially given the demands on web designers and creators to produce high-quality, professional-looking and intuitive websites. Often with these kind of sites there is a steep learning curve as CSS, HTML5, and even Flash in some ways play huge roles in… read more

13 Tips to Speed Up and Optimize Your WordPress Plugins

A common query among the internet users is that they need to know how can they enhance the speed of WordPress apps and optimize the plugins. Frankly speaking, this is never a cumbersome process as there are certain skilled tips that work towards speeding up WordPress experience. But, in this… read more

Wallpaper Calendar Freebie for May 2012: Sea Turtle by Geno Arguelles

We’re giving our freebie calendar for May 2012 earlier than usual so you can prep up your PC, Mac, or iPad for the next month. Our in-house designer Geno Arguelles turned his summer-themed artwork SEA TURTLE into a wallpaper to warm-up your work area. You can download the wallpaper calendar… read more

The Avengers AR App Turns You Into a Superhero

Avengers Super hereo AR App Game Mode Main Menu 01

Click here to view this gallery.

The Avengers movie,… read more

Fetchnotes Makes Note Taking Simple and Portable

I’m always on the lookout for nice notes apps. I use Evernote, Notepad, Writeroom, Ghost Writer, and more, and will use a different notes app depending on what I want to do with the notes. The great thing about notes apps is that you can use them for so many… read more

FanCru Is a Sports Social Network With a Twist

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Quick Pitch: A place for fans to connect with other supporters of the same teams, find the… read more

Microsoft Now Making Even More Money From Android

Microsoft just signed a deal with one of the biggest electronics makers in the world to license technologies related to Android and Chrome. The agreement is with Taiwan’s Pegatron, and with it, Microsoft now has patent-licensing deals with four out of the five top Taiwanese manufacturers, the company announced on… read more

9 Things Businesses Need to Know About Web Security

Incapsula co-founder and CEO, Gur Shatz, is a security industry veteran with more than 14 years of product leadership and engineering experience. Before founding Incapsula, Shatz held several key positions at Imperva.

Recently, someone posted a list of 5,012 websites on a hacker forum that were vulnerable to a SQL injection… read more

60 Minutes to a More Efficient Social Business Strategy

Josh S. Peters is the co-author of TwittFaced, and is the social media manager at The Search Agency. Follow him @JoshSPeters.

Every company should run a quick social media audit each quarter to make sure content is properly optimized and every aspect of their social presence aligns with their brand. The… read more

Mom Uses Facebook to Epically Put 13-Year-Old Daughter in Check [VIDEO]

When Denise Abbott’s 13-year-old daughter Ava wouldn’t stop talking smack and stirring up drama on Facebook, the Ohio mother decided to employ a punishment to fit the crime.

Abbott replaced her daughter’s profile picture with a photo of the girl with a red X layered over her mouth. “I… read more

Daily Inspiration #1118

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, You can submit your images and inspiration to RAWZ via http://raw.abduzeedo.com and don’t forget to… read more

10 Unmissable Apps for Ipad and Iphone Photographers

When Apple launched the iPhone, most people realized there was about to be a revolution in mobile telecommunications, what perhaps, was not recognized was the quiet revolution in photography. Since the launch and the emergence of the iPad and Android devices, a huge number of photographic apps have become available,… read more

Ex-NBA Star’s Awesomely Bad YouTube Rap Brings Out the Twitter Haters [VIDEO]

Former NBA star Steve Francis is “used to the finer things” and don’t you forget it. An awesomely bad YouTube rap video took Twitter by storm Wednesday, bringing Francis briefly back into the public consciousness. Predictably however, most of the Twitter commentary was derisive (see gallery below).

An “official” version… read more

Bitchin’ Kitchen: How a Web Chef Cooked Up a Hit TV Show

Name a chef who wears green eyeshadow, sequined purple sweaters and leather pants with a zip-out crotch. Chances are, you’re still searching. That is, unless you’ve tuned in with millions of other viewers to watch Cooking Channel’s Bitchin’ Kitchen, where celebrity chef Nadia G totters around on heels higher than… read more

Twitter, Times Square Billboard Call for an End to Malaria

In honor of World Malaria Day, April 25, advocates for the end of the disease are campaigning on the social web with the hashtag #endmalaria — the very hashtag responsible for propelling Ashton Kutcher (@AplusK) to become the first Twitter user with more than 1 million followers in 2009.

Lady Gaga-backed… read more

Roozt Is the Etsy for Social Entrepreneurs

Ecommerce site Roozt is trying to become the go-to hub for socially conscious consumers. With Roozt, shoppers can browse products based on cause supported, region of the world, or products sold.

Brent Freeman founded Roozt about three years ago with the idea of creating an Etsy-style marketplace for social… read more

How a Social Network Helps Families Coping With Autism

Autism Awareness Month may be coming to a close, but by using the social network MyAutismTeam, parents of children with autism spectrum disorder can spread awareness and find support throughout the year.

MyAutismTeam is a part of the MyHealthTeams network, online communities for people living with or caring for those… read more

‘The Muppets’ Lands Sequel After Box Office, Social Media Successes

Walt Disney Studios announced it will developing a sequel to its wildly successful film The Muppets, during the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Thanks to a strong digital campaign that not only revived its brand but also led to huge box office sales, you will be seeing more… read more

Apple’s Q2 Earnings in a Nutshell [INFOGRAPHIC]

Apple announced on Tuesday another blockbuster quarter due largely to strong iPhone sales. Our friends at Statista put together an infographic that makes it easy to see how well the company fared.

Apple raked in 35.06 million iPhone sales in the second quarter of 2012, which marks an 88% jump in… read more

Google Photo Tours Take You to 15,000 Destinations [VIDEO]

Upload your travel photos to Picasa or Panaromio? Those images might now be used in Google photo tours — a new feature that turns dozens of still pics into a photo gallery for more than 15,000 destinations.

Similar images are shown one after the other to give the viewer… read more

Daily Dot, Editor-in-Chief Part Ways

The Daily Dot, an online news startup launched in August that bills itself as “the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web,” is no longer being edited by Owen Thomas, the publication confirmed in a blog post Wednesday.

“It is a bittersweet parting,” writes Dot CEO Nicholas White. “Bitter, because… read more

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Mark Cuban [VIDEO]

Jesse Draper is creator and host of “The Valley Girl Show” through which she’s become a spokesperson for startups and helped pioneer the way of new media content distribution. Formerly a Nickelodeon star, Draper is now CEO of Valley Girl™ where she oversees the show and runs technology… read more

Pebble Watch Seamlessly Connects Your Whole Smartphone Life

The Summer Gadget Series is presented by the Galaxy Nexus from Sprint. Android 4.0, Google Wallet and Google Play make it pure Google. Truly Unlimited data from Sprint makes it unstoppable. Check it out.

Product: Pebble

Price: From $150 (check the product website for pricing)

What It’s Good For: Accessing your smartphone… read more

Why Great Design Is the Future of Content Marketing

Chuck Longanecker is the founder of Digital-Telepathy, a user-experience design company passionate about creating products, like SlideDeck and Impress. Follow him at @dtelepathy.

Although it’s still early in 2012, the importance of visual storytelling is clearly one of the year’s breakout trends. Facebook Timeline, Pinterest, and Instagram are forcing brands to… read more

WWDC ’12 Dates Announced By Apple

All systems are go, people. Apple has announced the official dates for their annual Worldwide Developers Conference and internet forums and Twitter feeds are already alive with predictions about what exactly is going to be announced. WWDC ’12 (with a slightly cryptic tagline It’s the week we’ve all been waiting… read more

Big Changes in Store for Facebook on Windows Phone [PICS]

If you recently picked up one of the new Windows Phones like the Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II, get ready for some good news. A new version of the Facebook Windows Phone app is almost ready, and it adds many new features.

A post on the Facebook for Windows… read more

Get To Know Your Utilities Folder: 7 Great Apps You Should Be Using

We’ve all done it. We bring home our shiny new Mac and we fire up all of the standard apps. We get our iChat account set up, link Mail.app with our mail accounts, and start putting dates into iCal. We import our music into iTunes and sync it up with… read more

Create a Professional Home Office

Many freelancers have some dedicated space in their home in which to do their work. And setting up a great home office is key to your productivity, sanity, and professionalism.

Of course, some people don’t have an entire room in their home dedicated to a home office, but if you… read more

A Pure CSS3 Cycling Slideshow

Thanks to CSS3, we can create effects and animations without using JavaScript, which will facilitate the work of many designers.

But we must be careful to avoid abusing CSS3, not only because old browsers do not support all of its properties. In any case, we all see the potential of CSS3,… read more

8 Free Screencasting Tools For Making Video Tutorials

Screencasting tools are used to show other people what exactly is happening on your computer like you see in video tutorials. Screencasting tools come in handy enormously as they allow you to demonstrate a product along with all its features, let you broadcast your preferred software hack, share a how-to-do… read more

Use iTeleport: VNC To Remote Control Your Mac

With a stable Internet connection, we need not be physically present in order to control a computer, access its files and run applications. By making use of VNC (or Virtual Network Computing) technology, it’s possible to remote control not just other OS X machines with your Mac but other platforms… read more

10 Simply Amazing Logos

Branding a business can be quite the difficult task, regardless of if it’s your own or a clients.  One of the most difficult things to do in this process is come up with a logo.  A sole image, or tag of some sort, that will effectively portray what that business… read more

Products and Packages with Fantastic Typography

Sometimes the most appealing products are not those that are priced the most reasonably, but the ones whose packaging goes beyond functionality and crosses over to the artistic. Alberto Alessi said it best when he described his reason for his own aesthetic designs:

“More and more people buy objects for intellectual… read more

‘Portlandia’ Needles Kickstarter With $25,000 Music Video Campaign [VIDEO]

If something’s cutting edge or contains an element of hipster culture, chances are the comedy show Portlandia will incorporate it into its sketches. In season 2, episode 6 of the hit IFC show, actors Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen play a musician and director aiming to raise $25,000 for a… read more

Jay-Z Launches Facebook Game ‘Empire’ for You to Take Over the World [PICS]

Empire Facebook Game

Click here to view this gallery.

Empire, a new Facebook game from Jay-Z, wants your virtual… read more

4 Tips for Keeping Your Gamified Community Motivated

Shannon Duffy is the president of marketing at Data.com, a Salesforce.com company. Follow her @sullytoduffy.

Everyone agrees: Gamification is hot. So hot that the market is expected to hit $2.8 billion in revenue by 2016. Naturally, companies are taking a long look at how to capitalize on this trend.

If you’ve… read more

How One App Uses Digital to Empower Education

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Three Ring

Quick Pitch: Create and share digital portfolios of students’ work quickly and easily.

Genius Idea: Three… read more

CISPA Authors Confident Bill Will Pass Despite Rising Opposition

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich), author of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, is confident the bill has enough support in the House to pass when it comes up for a vote Friday. Rising opposition from privacy groups and concerned Internet users has not shaken his… read more

How Digital Journalists Used Data to Report on Murdoch Scandal

Innovative digital journalism played a starring role in the wake of a massive document release during an inquiry into British media ethics.

The Leveson Inquiry, a judicial investigation into the culture, practice and ethics of the press, was originally called to examine the widespread phone hacking that took place at… read more

This High-Tech Plane Flies Non-Stop From Boston to Asia [VIDEO]

The first ever non-stop flight from Tokyo to Boston, via Japan Airlines, took place on April 22 using the 787-8 Dreamliner. As a result, the East and West got a little more “connected.”

The flight not only marks the first commercial use of the 787 Dreamliner in the U.S., but… read more

Are Brain Waves and Heartbeats the Future of Passwords? [VIDEO]

James Bond who? As badass as retinal scanners and fingerprint IDs are in movies, the next generation of password technology is even more advanced — it reads your brain.

Numerous researchers are looking into ways to use brain waves and heartbeats to identify individuals.

“There will come a… read more

The Decline of KONY 2012: Where Did the Online Buzz Go?

KONY 2012, the most viral video of all time, took the web by storm in March. Yet KONY 2012 couldn’t sustain its momentous social buzz until its day of action on April 20, called Cover the Night.

Kony-related topics received 74,000 total Twitter mentions on April 20 — less than half… read more

PinPuzzle Turns Pinterest Into a Mobile Game

Fascinated by their girlfriends’ obsessions with Pinterest, two friends have created a mobile app that turns your Pinterest boards into a mobile game. Called PinPuzzle, the app takes photos from your boards (or anyone else’s on the service) and turns each one into a new level of a sliding puzzle… read more

Coming Soon: Planet Earth, Live-Streamed from Space [VIDEO]

Wouldn’t it be amazing to sit aboard the International Space Station, watching Earth’s continents and oceans pass by as you orbit the planet?

If a startup called Urthecast has its way, you’ll soon be able to replicate that experience from your computer, thanks to HD cameras mounted on the station… read more

Twitter Is Not Feeling Brian McKnight’s Explicit New Music

Brian McKnight is known for the R&B music he has recorded over the past 20 years. His hits “Anytime” and “Back to One” are considered such romantic standards that his tracks are regularly used as wedding songs.

Because McKnight’s musical reputation is built on love songs, his fans were surprised to… read more

How Does Google Drive Compare to the Competition?

Amazon Cloud Drive

Storage: 5GB free (purchases from the Amazon MP3 Store don’t count towards storage limit)
Mobile Integration: Cloud… read more

Apple’s Q2 iPad Sales Weren’t So Insanely Great

Despite the gloom surrounding its stock price of late, Apple delivered another blowout quarter on Tuesday, thanks in large part to iPhone sales. But if you took the iPhone out of the equation, the overall numbers were just OK as Macs had a so-so quarter and iPad sales fell… read more

Ubooly Plush Toy Uses Your iPhone or iPad to Teach Children [VIDEO]

What’s orange, furry, adorable and can teach your kids Spanish? Meet the new plush toy Ubooly. It combines teddy bear cuteness with a voice recognition app to become an interactive educational tool for kids.

Just slip your iPhone or iPad into the zippered pouch on the fuzzy Ubooly’s head,… read more