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Star Apps: Devo's Gerald Casale

Star Apps: Devo's Gerald Casale
I think it was Stiff Records that created this kind of marketing gestalt that there was this scene in Akron, and mind it well. Do you think …. We decided to go in on a plan that was never utilized by 20th century Modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe …
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8 Stupidest Mistakes Marketers Make
Don't tweet that you Facebooked a blog post that summarizes a press release, please. Space it out and use … You should have ownership of your branded name as soon as possible even if you don't plan on using Pinterest or YouTube. At least they're off …
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8 Tips To Improve Your Local SEO Performance
Your blog is a great marketing tool for engaging your visitors, educating them, and also attracting social signals. When you update your content on a regular basis you are letting the search engines know that your website is a source of information …
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imo.im Launches Broadcasts on Android and iOS Mobile Apps


PALO ALTO, CA (PRWEB) May 23, 2013

imo.im, the company behind a top messaging network that allows users to communicate across nine of the most popular third-party messaging services, announced today the introduction of Broadcasts on its mobile platforms. The imo Network, first introduced on the web last year and met with positive user feedback, has been redesigned for users on both Android and iOS devices. This update comes on the heels of a recent $ 13 million Series B round led by co-founder and angel investor, Georges Harik, one of Google’s first 10 employees. The funds will be used to rapidly grow the imo Network over the next year.

The new mobile Broadcasts feed, an integral function of the imo Network, creates a channel where users can easily discover people, information, news and topics they care about in an effort to build relationships and spark discussions. Additionally, users now have the ability to upload and share photos directly to the Broadcasts feed. With the Broadcasts feature, users no longer need to search for friends or specific topics as imo ranks content using a proprietary algorithm that identifies users’ interests. It then generates the appropriate connections with like-minded individuals and groups of people based on these interests, location and friends by evaluating behavior and engagement within the imo Network.

“Social discovery is an important feature,” said Ralph Harik, CEO of imo.im. “We want users to find relevant and useful information, people, news and other content that will make their lives better. imo Broadcasts is a platform to achieve that.”

Always focused on innovation and leading the mobile communications industry, the team at imo quickly adapts to new trends and creates its own by churning out constant updates for its apps and web platform based on users’ needs. As a result, imo has been rapidly expanding its services for both web, mobile and tablet users over the past year. In fact, earlier this year, imo launched completely new UI designs for Android, iPhone and iPad users and introduced high-quality voice calling feature that allow friends and family to stay in touch without sacrificing mobile minutes over a 3G/4G connection or allotted data when connected to Wi-Fi. Additionally, all three platforms now include group sharing and real-time uploading of photos.

About imo.im

imo offers an all-in-one communication and social discovery platform with supported networks including AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Steam, VKontakte and Yahoo. Free on the web, Android, iPhone and iPad, imo has more than 7 million mobile downloads and 750,000 unique daily visitors delivering an average of 50 million messages per day. imo supports both private and group chat with the ability to share multimedia files and photos with groups, send voice and text IMs, conduct quick chat history searches and hold simultaneous sessions allowing users to seamlessly switch between desktop, mobile and tablet devices without losing conversations.

Based in Palo Alto, CA, imo was co-founded and funded by one of the first 10 employees at Google, Georges Harik.







5 top mobile apps

5 top mobile apps
Individual and corporate tablet users almost certainly need a good office suite to deal with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents. There … Free in the iTunes App Store. NeoCal for Android. Good utilities are a nice find in the app store, and NeoCal …
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Epson's Top Five Things to Know about High-Definition Widescreen WXGA
Epson's high-definition widescreen WXGA projectors offer a native screen resolution of 1280 x 800, making them appropriate for both business and classroom use. … Presentations: Popular presenting solutions such as Microsoft® PowerPoint®, Apple …
Read more on SYS-CON Media (press release)

Microsoft Word, Excel e Powerpoint disponibili nella versione iPad
Dopo avervi parlato dell'evento di presentazione tenutosi a San Francisco e durante il quale la suite Office per iPad è stata svelata, le tre applicazioni Word, Excel e Powerpoint vivono in App Store. Tutte e tre le app di Microsoft sono gratuite al …
Read more on HDblog (Blog)

5 Last Minute Apps to Help You Get Through Tax Season

5 Last Minute Apps to Help You Get Through Tax Season
April 15 is inching perilously closer. Sooner or later, you're going to have to come to terms with burning an evening fishing through a bunch of paperwork and sorting out your financial life. Sounds exhilarating, doesn't it? But, as it is with most …
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Can you really afford that mortgage? Know your Real Life Ratio
Household take-home pay is used here: Other ratios use gross income, which is less relevant for practical financial planning. 2. This is not a budget: Only fixed costs are included here; food, clothing and other costs aren't discretionary, but you …
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Chimani Celebrates National Park Week with the Release of Five New National Park Mobile Apps and New Innovative Features


Yarmouth, ME (PRWEB) April 16, 2013

Chimani announced today a range of products and new features to enhance national park visitors experiences while in the parks. The announcement coincides with the celebration of this year’s National Park Week, which runs from April 22-26.

In honor of each of the five days of National Park Week – a new park app will be released for each day. The new Chimani mobile apps include Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, Olympic National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Bryce Canyon National Park. These, as well as all other Chimani apps, will be available for free on Apple iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon AppStore starting Monday, April 22 – the first day of National Park Week.

Each new national park app includes all the core technologies which has made Chimani the #1 mobile app platform for visiting national parks. The new park apps continue Chimani’s goal for helping visitors get the most out of their national park experience.

Each app delivers constantly updated content, detailed maps, ranger-led event schedules, auto touring points of interest, hiking details, restroom locations, free shuttle bus schedules, and breaking news alerts. Users can also view sunset and sunrise times for the most memorable scenic overlooks, access tide schedules along the coast, review lodging options, and much, much more. And as always, each Chimani app is designed to work without a cell phone signal.

Chimani’s Viewport Augmented Reality Tool

Chimani’s new Viewport tool – an augmented reality viewer available as a $ 1.99 in-app purchase – allows users to access an entirely new layer of information as part of their park experience. “Whether it’s the South Rim of the Grand Canyon or Glacier Point in Yosemite, visitors often overlook the richness that surrounds these dramatic viewpoints,” says Kerry Gallivan, CEO/co-founder of Chimani. “Using Chimani’s Viewport tool, visitors can pan around the scenic outlook and identify points of interest which are often left undiscovered. It is yet another Chimani tool that allows visitors to get the most of their park experience,” says Kerry.

Cell phone signals are poor and non-existent in most national parks, therefore Chimani apps are designed to function without any type of data connection. This ability also applies to the new Chimani augmented reality viewer – visitors can be in the most remote corners of a park and still discover new points of interest.

Crowd-sourced topographic maps

Chimani continues its innovation in mobile mapping technology for the outdoors by introducing topographic maps based on data from Openstreetmaps.org – the largest online mapping project in the world. Chimani is now able to produce rich topographic maps which are updated monthly with the most recent data available for park visitors.

“Chimani users are now able to actively contribute to the national park community and help build better geo-spatial data for each of the parks,” says Kerry Gallivan. “A great example of this is Openstreetmaps.org’s user Tomthepom who spent the winter meticulously editing the park data within Grand Canyon. Thanks to Tom, the data found within the Chimani maps is the most detailed and up-to-date available anywhere – digital or print,” says Kerry.

Many visitors don’t realize how often trail data changes so having access to the latest details helps enhance the park experience.

Social-sharing using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology

For the Android versions of the apps, Chimani has introduced a beta feature of a social-sharing tool that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to connect with other Chimani users and share contact information. “We modeled this feature after the tradition on the Appalachian Trail of exchanging something with people that you meet on the trail,” says, Kerry Gallivan. By touching two Android phones together, the users profile is exchanged using NFC. No cell phone signal is required and when the exchange occurs within a particular park, a unique badge is unlocked between users as a bonus.

Chimani’s suite of National Park Apps

The Chimani suite of national park apps include 14 of the most visited national parks in the United States. These include Acadia National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cape Cod National Seashore, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Olympic National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Zion National Park and the National Parks app – which is a virtual passport tool for all the National Park Service units.

Each of the national park apps are an indispensable resource for anyone visiting our most treasured national parks. Each delivers constantly updated content, ranger-led event schedules, auto touring points of interest, hiking details, restroom locations, free shuttle bus schedules, and breaking news alerts. Users can also view sunset and sunrise times for the most memorable scenic overlooks, access tide schedules along the coast, review lodging options, and much, much more.

The Chimani apps are available for the iPhone, iPad, Amazon Kindle and Android devices. They can be downloaded directly from Apple’s iTunes App Store, Google Play and Amazon AppStore (keyword: “chimani”).

About Chimani

Located along the rocky coast of Maine, Chimani has become a leading developer of mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Chimani is comprised of a small group of developers who are passionate about helping people get the most out their outdoor adventures. Founded in 2010, Chimani apps have totaled over 450,000 downloads and rank #1 in each of the major app marketplaces for individual parks. For more information visit http://www.chimani.com or view the app demo filmed in the Grand Canyon National Park: https://vimeo.com/58183356







FPgirl Market Insights Program: Gen Z Girls Prefer Gaming Over Lifestyle Apps and Admire Zendaya Colemans Sense of Style

Beverly, Massachusetts (PRWEB) April 24, 2013

FashionPlaytes, Inc. today released new data on what tween girls think about fashion, style and entertainment as part of its FPgirl Market Insights Program. The data looks at Tech Trends and Fashion Influences and delivers a unique understanding of how tween girls view the world of mobile apps, as well as how they identify their style with celebrities.

Tech Trends: In a world of mobile apps, FPgirls skew heavily to arcade-style games, preferring Temple Run and Subway Surfers over other games, and even other app types. 56% of the over 2,600 voters selected these apps above others such as Instagram, Pandora, Angry Birds and Kik. Although 1 in 5 of the girls selected Instagram as their favorite app, and commented on their love for texting via Kik, the results show an overall high interest in gaming-related apps instead of the lifestyle/ entertainment category.

“We have been exploring how tween girls find and use apps through a series of surveys and polls,” said Andy Komack, FPgirl Market Insights program director. “When we ask girls in an open forum to volunteer apps that they love, they lean heavily to games. When they vote on top apps, the same pattern emerges,” adds Komack. “We are currently working with our community of girls to understand how they find and use apps in the world of fashion. The information we have gathered so far is fascinating, and points to interesting ways that they perceive apps.”

Fashion Influences: FashionPlaytes also gave a sneak peek at their celebrity series of data in the Market Insights program, where Zendaya Coleman was a clear winner in terms of providing fashion inspiration for girls.

“As you might imagine, tween girls rapidly evolve their tastes and preferences,” says Komack. “In an earlier poll, girls clearly stated that they derive fashion inspiration from themselves, instead of from celebrities. At the same time, girls do obviously follow celebrities. We have seen that our girls have moved fluidly between Taylor Swift, Victoria Justice, Lucy Hale, Zendaya Coleman and others in terms of who provides inspiration.” The data about Zendaya Coleman leading the poll is also closely aligned to an earlier poll about favorite TV channels where FPgirls heavily skewed to watching the Disney Channel, where Zendaya reigns, with 70% of their vote.

About FPgirl Market Insights:

FPgirl Market Insights pulls information from FPgirl’s 700,000+ member fashion design community, where girls regularly post information, interact with each other and provide unique input via the site’s polls. The program is designed to provide previously unavailable information on everything from what girls wear, how and where they shop, and how they like to be entertained. Insights uncovered through the FPgirl Market Insights program gives brands a unique and unfiltered glimpse into what makes these digital natives tick.

Subscribe to the Market Insights Program here. For more details or to ask about partnership opportunities, please contact insights(at)fashionplaytes(dot)com.

About FashionPlaytes and FPgirl:

FashionPlaytes is the creator of FPgirl.com, the online fashion and style destination where girls are designers and set the trends. The FPgirl community is filled with vibrant, talented, and supportive girls who create cool custom clothing, crowd-source designs, and share their insights about what it’s like to be a girl in today’s world. FashionPlaytes celebrates all girls, providing a fun, safe, interactive environment. Its engagement-driven ecommerce platform is fueled by girls, for girls.

Media Contact:

Halley Spong

Connect2 Communications

halley(at)connect2comm(dot)com

919-539-7862







Review: Microsoft Office 365 vs. Google Apps

Review: Microsoft Office 365 vs. Google Apps
SkyDrive Pro comes with the package, with 25GB of file storage space, as does SharePoint with shared email and document folders. All of this costs $ 60 per year … Business Class Email/Exchange Online Plan 1, for an unlimited number of users, drops …
Read more on IDG News Service

Public is Invited to Use Web, iPhone and Android Apps as Part of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Geo Inventory Challenge


Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) February 08, 2012

Azavea, an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development company, announces a crowd-sourcing contest to locate automated external defibrillators (AED) and the release of a web application and two free mobile apps, part of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvanias MyHeartMap Challenge. The applications are now available for the public to participate in the MyHeartMap Challenge which will run for six weeks from January 31 to Tuesday, March 13. In an effort to build a national database of AEDs and increase AED awareness, the Penn Medicines MyHeartMap is turning to the public to gather as much information as possible about AEDs accessible to the public.

Though almost non-existent a decade ago, automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) are now all around us, in airports, schools, gyms, and workplaces. These devices can save lives as they deliver electric shocks to victims of cardiac arrests. This is most effective in the first minutes after someone collapses. Yet, there is no comprehensive map of such devices available to the public. As a result, AEDs are often not used when they are most needed either because witnesses of a cardiac arrest incident do not know there might be an AED close by or that they should be looking for one.

The Penn Medicine MyHeartMap team is initiating the MyHeartMap Challenge project by encouraging the public, armed with the web and mobile applications built by Azavea, to locate and photograph as many AEDs in Philadelphia as possible. Both the apps and participation in the contest are free. Participants will be able to geocode their photos via the mobile app available on the iPhone or Android — and register information about the AEDs such as manufacturer and condition of the device. In addition to the mobile apps, participants can enter data and check their status in the contest at the MyHeartMap website: http://philly.myheartmap.org/.

MyHeartMap Challenge participants can register as individuals or as teams. The individual or team that will find the most AEDs will win $ 10,000. Other participants will win $ 50 if they are the first to identify one of the designated golden AEDs. The MyHeartMap team is being coy about the precise number of golden AEDs, but has announced that there will be 20 to 200 of them. The data collected will be used to create an updated database of locations of all public AEDs in the Philadelphia region with a person’s GPS coordinates to help them locate the nearest AED during an emergency. The project is part of a larger ongoing collaboration between faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington and is modeled after the DARPA Network Challenge, a crowd-sourcing experiment in which social media users raced to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations throughout the United States. It is the teams hope that this challenge will lead to a nation-wide contest.

The MyHeartMap Challenge project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Physio Control; the Medtronic Foundation; the HeartRescue Project; Zoll; Cardiac Science; Philips and the University of Pennsylvania.

For more information about the MyHeartMap Challenge, visit: http://www.myheartmap.org. Participants can use a web application available at: http://philly.myheartmap.org/ The smart phone apps can also be downloaded for free for the iPhone at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id492442372?mt=8 and from the Android Marketplace at https://market.android.com/details?id=edu.upenn.medicine.myheartmap.

About Azavea – Azavea is an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development firm specializing in the creation of location-based web and mobile software as well as geospatial analysis services. Azavea is a certified B Corporation that applies geographic data and technology to promote the emergence of more dynamic, vibrant, and sustainable communities. Each of Azaveas projects, products and pro bono engagements showcases this commitment. Find more at http://www.azavea.com.

If you would like more information about Azavea or to schedule an interview with Robert Cheetham, Azavea CEO and President, please contact Amy Trahey at (215) 558 6184 or e-mail atrahey(at)azavea(dot)com.

About MyHeartMap Challenge The Philadelphia MyHeartMap Challenge is the first of many city Challenges, followed by a nation-wide contest. Data collected for the contest will be used for a U-Penn research study evaluating AED mapping and database development. It is the initiative of a group of health professionals dedicated to saving lives and expanding the horizons of theory and practicethis interdisciplinary team has come together to engage and challenge the Philadelphia community to improve access to critical life-saving technologies. By harnessing the increasing reach of new media they hope to bring innovation to address an important public health disparity. Find more at http://www.myheartmap.org

For more information about the MyHeartMap Challenge, contact the team at myheartmapchallenge(at)uphs(dot)upenn(dot)edu

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Services add apps to your small business Facebook page

Services add apps to your small business Facebook page
I spoke with Lieberman last week about how small businesses can use their Facebook page application real estate to run polls, run sweepstakes and contests, point to blogs, and so on. “Timeline really encourages marketers to produce content that is …
Read more on ZDNet (blog)

Ektron Webinar to Provide Storytelling Tips for Digital Marketing Teams
The session, called "Storytelling Tips for Digital Marketing Teams," will include an explanation of storytelling and a breakdown of the components of a meaningful story. It will explain how to integrate storytelling into content and marketing efforts …
Read more on SYS-CON Media (press release)