15 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Alan Spicer

Memorial Day weekend has arrived in a hurry, spreading some unseasonably cold weather across the country. If you’ve been busy prepping for your weekend getaway plans and haven’t had time to check out the news — don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

It has been another busy week for us at Mashable, and we rounded up the top 15 digital media resources in social media and tech for you here, including news on Microsoft’s new Xbox One. So go ahead and get yourself caught up, and enjoy your holiday weekend!

  • 14 Twitter Tips and Tricks for Power Users
    Check out these tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.

  • How to Sync Your Facebook Contacts to iPhone
    Did you know you can sync your Facebook friends to your iPhone contacts? Here’s a quick how-to.

  • 8 Tips for Successful Business Development
    Check out these tips on successful business development for startups, including how to avoid many of the typical frustrations with business development.

  • 5 Tools to Help Plan Your Next Meeting
    Planning a meeting can be a hassle. Check out these tools to help ease your scheduling complication woes.

  • 5 DIY Office Toys for Your Next Coffee Break
    Bored at work? You’re not alone. Spice up your day with our five DIY contraptions you can build using basic office supplies.

  • 20 Hot London Startups You Need to Watch
    Check out these innovative companies that call London home.

  • The 25 Best Free iPad Apps
    This list of free iPad apps will save you from endless browsing in the App Store, and they’ll all prove worthy of your homescreen.

  • Facebook for Android: 10 Tips for Power Users
    The Facebook Android app’s most recent iterations are packed with features, from personal settings to page management to power sharing.

  • The New Flickr: What it Means for Flickr Pro Users
    Flickr made some big changes to its service; what do they mean for Flickr Pro users?

  • 5 Mobile Marketing Tools to Reach Customers on the Go
    If you’re looking to supercharge your mobile marketing strategy, check out these 5 vendors that can help.

  • The 15 Best Free iPad Games
    It can be hard to find great free iPad games, but Mashable compiled a list of the 15 best.

  • Does Your ’360 Campaign’ Need to Be a Perfect Circle?
    When integrated marketing doesn’t cut it anymore, we do 360 campaigns — after all, what better way to cover your bases than a complete circle?

  • When to Back Off the Social Media Baby Train
    Whether you’re the parent oversharer or the casual News Feed browser, these tips will make your social media experiences more pleasurable.

  • 10 Best iPhone Chargers
    Whether you’re looking for a compact option, a stylish device, or even a car charger, we have found a charger to suit your needs.

  • Can This ‘Bike Sherpa’ Get More PTAT on Facebook?
    Robert Reimann watched the second plane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and then observed as his office nearby was destroyed as the towers fell. Then he did something few Americans considered at the time: He took a bike tour across Iran.

    • Image via iStockphoto, teobraga

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    Hanson Beer Mmmhops to Make Its Debut

    Posted on May 24, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    Nearly two years after pop band Hanson announced it would be introducing a beer line, Mmmhops is almost ready for its debut. That’s right, dear readers — you’ll be able to sip your way into ’90s nostalgia.

    Called Mmmhops — a reference to the brothers’ popular “MMMBop” song from 1997 — the pale ale makes a cameo in the film Hangover 3, which hits theaters this weekend. The beer is a product of Mustang Brewing in Oklahoma — the boys’ home state — and is in the final stages of brewing, according to BeerPulse.

    Hanson performed at the premiere party of Hangover 3, and middle brother Taylor snapped a picture with one of the film’s stars, Ed Helms (pictured below).

    Let’s hope the beer sticks around for a bit… because, you know, in a Mmmbop it could be gone.

    Would you order a Mmmhops at a bar? Let us know in the comments below.

    Image via Brenda Chase/Getty Images

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    Prepare for the Cicada Invasion With This Creepy-Crawly Time-Lapse

    Posted on May 24, 2013 by Alan Spicer
    The cicada swarms are coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

    You will step on a cicada shell, one will fall in your hair and that buzzing drone will haunt your entire summer. But instead of fearing the creepy crawlers, appreciate this miraculous act of mother nature with a time-lapse by filmmaker Samuel Orr.

    Orr is determined to change the bad rep these bugs have gotten with this video he’s been producing since 2007. He says he became interested in the insects as a child when he found them “scary and mysterious,” but changed his perspective after learning more about their lives.

    “When you find out they can’t bite or sting and have no defenses, and live their entire lives underground except for the last few weeks when they come up, it’s a little sad,” Orr tells Mashable. “All that time waiting, and then the dog eats it, or somebody steps on it. These are amazing animals; just stand back and admire them, and let them live out the last few days they have.”

     

    Orr hopes to turn the project into a full documentary and has created a Kickstarter to help fund it.

     

    1. 1. Toilet Spider

      Nope. No. No. Uh-uh. No thanks. Nope. Bye.

    2. 2. There is a Bug on Your Face

      Pop quiz! What’s grosser: this whip scorpion, or that guy’s mustache?

    3. 3. Spider Worm

      After killing a big spider, the videographer noticed something escaping from its corpse. Haunted spaghetti? No, that’s a nematode, or parasitic roundworm. Fun fact: There are thousands of tiny ones inside you at this very moment. Have a great day!

    4. 4. Bed Bugs

      It’s hard to imagine anything worse than untold thousands of bedbugs crawling around your bed while you sleep.

    5. 5. Maggot Therapy

      All right, this is worse than bed bugs.

    6. 6. “Big Spider Attacks Daddy”

      The phrase “spider attacks” in this video title is a little harsh. “Spider justly and appropriately defends itself” is more fitting.

    7. 7. Bot Fly Extraction

      Bot flies are an old standby. YouTube is full of disgusting extraction videos.

    8. 8. Giant Centipede vs. Snake

      The Vietnamese centipede, or scolopendra subspinipes, is among the largest centipedes on Earth, with a maximum length of about 20 cm. Highly venomous, it is the only species of centipede verified to have killed a human.

    9. 9. Deadly Spider Bites With “Dr. Venom”

      The creepy spider expert/Bond villain known as Dr. Venom adds to the charm of this video. What’s more unsettling – the long shots of horrible spider bite infections, or the way he lovingly handles his eight-legged friends?

    Image and video courtesy of Samuel Orr

     

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    Flat UI Kit (free download!)

    Posted on May 23, 2013 by Alan Spicer










    Trends start everyday: an idea is adopted, passed on and before you know it it’s being discussed on design blogs. However, most trends vanish as quickly as they appeared. To paraphrase Andy Warhol, everything will be trendy for 15 minutes. Once in a while, an idea is found to have something so fundamental about it that it thrives, even after the initial clamor dies down. Responsive design was one such ‘trend’ and flat-design looks like becoming another.

    Flat design — which is more of a rejection of 3D artifice than it is a style — fits so perfectly into the contemporary landscape that it’s already hard to envisage a time when it wasn’t de rigueur.

    To help you take the leap into flat design we’ve put together this great freebie: A free flat UI kit designed especially for Webdesigner Depot by Freepik.  As you know, Freepik.com is a leading search engine that indexes vectors, PSDs and photos free for personal and commercial use. It’s a great resource for graphic designers as their engine locates free graphic content and it displays the results in an orderly layout for easy access. 

    See the full preview below and subscribe below to download the file. You can use the file for personal and commercial uses. Enjoy and share this with your friends! Continue reading →

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    HP Thinks Giant Tablets Are a Good Idea

    Posted on May 23, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    1. The PC as a Game Board

      The HP Rove 20 is an all-in-one PC that’s actually a tablet. It’s equipped with a battery, so you can move it from room to room casually. It also comes pre-loaded with games like Monopoly for use as a casual gaming device.

      Hp-rove-20-1

    2. Stood Up

      You can stand the Rove 20 at any many different angles.

      Hp-rove-20-4

    3. Back

      The back of the Rove 20 has a special hinge that holds the screen up.

      Hp-rove-20-7

    4. Side View

      The thin profile hides the hinge unless you view it from the side.

      Hp-rove-20-6

    5. Hinge

      You only need one hand to adjust the hinge.

      Hp-rove-20-8

    6. Backside

      The Rove 20 doesn’t wobble as you adjust the hinge.

      Hp-rove-20-10

    7. Modes

      A look at the many modes of the Rove 20.

      Hp-rove-20-11

    Windows 8 has officially created a new category: the monster tablet. Last fall’s Sony Tap 20 could have been dismissed as a one-off aberration, but others have since launched giant screens equipped with batteries, including HP, who just unveiled the Rove 20.

    Why Rove? Because it can do exactly that — the 20-inch display is fully portable with almost 4 hours of battery life. Although its mobility, along with the 10-finger multi-touch display, technically makes it a tablet, it’s really better thought of as an all-in-one PC that you can move from room to room when you need to.

    Much like the Tap 20 and Lenovo’s IdeaCenter Horizon, the Rove has a special hinge that lets you use it in many different ways. Stood up at a high angle, it’s great as a normal all-in-one or even an “easel” for a painting app. At a low angle, it’s more suited for drafting. The hinge is made so you can easily adjust the angle with one hand.

    It really shines when it’s laid flat, though, since it becomes a virtual game board for any number of gaming apps. Many come pre-installed, including Monopoly, Fingertaps Jigsaw Wars and Musical Instruments, and Disney Fairies.

    The in-plane switching (IPS) LCD will help with off-angle viewing from various players during gameplay. And if the accelerometer does anything weird, HP wisely provides a manual rotation button that puts you back in control of the screen.

    The Rove 20 won’t be available until July, partly because it’s waiting on Intel’s latest Core processors, the fourth-generation “Haswell” chips. Those are expected to officially arrive in the next month. The Rove will use as lower-power chip meant for Ultrabooks and hybrids along with Intel’s integrated HD graphics.

    The Rove packs 1TB of storage as well as an 8GB solid-state drive for faster response time. It’s also includes the latest and greatest Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and WiDi for use as a wireless display from another device such as a phone or tablet.

    Price isn’t final yet, but HP says it’ll be in the neighborhood of $1,000.

    How do you like the Rove 20 and the new breed of Windows 8 supertablets/mobile all-in-ones? Let us know in the comments.

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    Google+ Unveils Redesign for Mobile Web

    Posted on May 22, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    Less than a week after Google+ unveiled a redesign for desktop, the social network is also getting overhauled on the mobile web.

    In a post on its official G+ page Tuesday, the service said that posts now appear as “cards” in the stream, making them easier to read, +1 and re-share.

    What’s more, Profiles and Pages now include cover photos and larger “tap targets,” the blog post revealed.

    Changes to the mobile version of Google+ are similar to those made for the desktop. At its Google I/O conference for developers, the search giant rolled out an image-centric design that resembles Pinterest’s and Facebook’s layouts. Google introduced 41 new features, including a multi-column layout, larger photos and automatic addition of related hashtags to the stream.

    There are now 190 million active users in the Google+ stream.

    What do you think of Google+’s updates for the mobile web? Tell us in the comments, below.

    Images courtesy of Google+; homepage image via iStockphoto, maxphotography

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    ‘Man of Steel’ Debuts Sinister New Trailer Featuring General Zod

    Posted on May 22, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    The latest trailer for Man of Steel, Warner Bros.’ reboot of the Superman film series, landed online Tuesday — and it has a decidedly darker feel than previous spots.

    Entitled “Fate of Your Planet,” the nearly two-minute promo begins with a sinister voiceover by General Zod, a super-villain and one of Superman’s nemesis. The rest of the trailer features intense battle scenes involving the Man of Steel (played by Henry Cavill) and Zod (Michael Shannon), as well as appearances by Lois Lane (Amy Adams).

    Directed by Zack Synder, who also helmed Watchmen and 300, Man of Steel will debut on June 14.

    What do you think of the newest trailer? Tell us in the comments, below.

    Image courtesy of WarnerBrosPictures via YouTube

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    ‘Man of Steel’ Debuts Sinister New Trailer Featuring General Zod

    Posted on May 22, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    The latest trailer for Man of Steel, Warner Bros.’ reboot of the Superman film series, landed online Tuesday — and it has a decidedly darker feel than previous spots.

    Entitled “Fate of Your Planet,” the nearly two-minute promo begins with a sinister voiceover by General Zod, a super-villain and one of Superman’s nemesis. The rest of the trailer features intense battle scenes involving the Man of Steel (played by Henry Cavill) and Zod (Michael Shannon), as well as appearances by Lois Lane (Amy Adams).

    Directed by Zack Synder, who also helmed Watchmen and 300, Man of Steel will debut on June 14.

    What do you think of the newest trailer? Tell us in the comments, below.

    Image courtesy of WarnerBrosPictures via YouTube

    Posted in General News, Tech News | Leave a comment

    ‘Man of Steel’ Debuts Sinister New Trailer Featuring General Zod

    Posted on May 22, 2013 by Alan Spicer

    The latest trailer for Man of Steel, Warner Bros.’ reboot of the Superman film series, landed online Tuesday — and it has a decidedly darker feel than previous spots.

    Entitled “Fate of Your Planet,” the nearly two-minute promo begins with a sinister voiceover by General Zod, a super-villain and one of Superman’s nemesis. The rest of the trailer features intense battle scenes involving the Man of Steel (played by Henry Cavill) and Zod (Michael Shannon), as well as appearances by Lois Lane (Amy Adams).

    Directed by Zack Synder, who also helmed Watchmen and 300, Man of Steel will debut on June 14.

    What do you think of the newest trailer? Tell us in the comments, below.

    Image courtesy of WarnerBrosPictures via YouTube

    Posted in General News, Tech News | Leave a comment

    Fantastical fairytale photos

    Posted on May 21, 2013 by Alan Spicer










    Film studios spend millions of dollars to create stunning epic masterpieces like The Lord of the Rings. But sometimes visual perfection can be created on a shoestring — that is, when enough time, energy and sacrifice are the alternate currency.

    British photographer Kirsty Mitchell has done just that, creating a fantastical, fairytale-esque series of photos that were inspired by her late mother. A former teacher and avid storyteller, Kirsty’s mother lost her battle with a brain tumor in 2008. Since then, the costume-designer-turned-photographer has spent countless hours constructing costumes, wigs and sets to turn her vision into reality.

    The process was painstaking, with some images taking up to five months to create. All photos were shot within mere miles of Kirsty’s Surrey home, but their rich beauty makes them look otherworldly. Relying upon gorgeous fields of wild flowers, bluebells and more, the patient photographer sometimes waited an entire year for the costumes she created to match nature’s blooms.

    “My aim was to portray time passing, an unsaid journey through four seasons, incorporating every colour in the rainbow.”

    “

    With the three-year project nearly complete, Kirsty has plans for both an exhibition and accompanying book. Filled with majestic colors and ethereal characters,

    Wonderland is her tribute to the memory of her inspirational mother. It’s a breathtaking work of art — a dream realized and a promise fulfilled.

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    Which photo looks like it took the longest to create? Have you ever taken years on a labor of love? Tell us in the comments.

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