Now that we’ve recently launched our M BoothFacebook page (please “like” us, by the way!), we’ve been trying to add all sorts of fun features to it, to keep M Boothers and friends posted on what we’re up to. So far, this includes everything from information on open positions, to photos from our parties and softball games, to posts from our two blogs (this one and Better4You).
Unfortunately, it was tough to find an easy way to import both of our blogs’ RSS feeds to the page. Facebook recommends doing it through its Notes application, but you can only import one blog and it wasn’t updating regularly for us. There are other applications that allow you to add a “Blog” tab to your page but again, it only allows one blog feed to be imported. We really didn’t want to have to manually put up a link every time someone blogged, but we were having trouble finding another option.
Luckily, Rob happens to follow a 13-year-old technology wunderkind named Jack DeFuria, who mentioned a free tool called dlvr.it on Twitter the other day. Rob asked me to check it out and I promptly fell in love (with dlvr.it, not Rob…or Jack). Not only will dlvr.it import multiple blog feeds to your Facebook page (and Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Buzz too, if you so desire), it also provides analytics on how many people are clicking through on each post. Now each of our M Boother-penned blog posts seamlessly shows up on our Facebook page within minutes. Problem solved!
Attention, all you movie and TV buffs! Netflix today released an app that puts its instant streaming service on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch…and it’s free! (Well, almost — you still need to be a Netflix subscriber to access the vast streaming library.)
While the app was already available on the iPad, many Netflix fans are rejoicing over the fact that they can now carry Netflix around in their pockets. Initial reaction to the app’s performance seems positive, although many are recommending you watch over Wi-Fi rather than 3G wireless connections to avoid that pesky buffering nonsense.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m totally psyched about being able to watch old episodes of Boy Meets Worldduring my commute (I heart Topanga).
Do you eat out so often that sometimes, you forget the names of restaurants you’ve tried? Are you the go-to person for friends and family members who want restaurant recommendations? Do you keep a running personal “wish list” of restaurants you want to try? Is said list becoming out of control?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, Dinevore might be right for you.
The new online community/web application is like Foursquare sans check-in, meets Yelp, meets NYMag.com’s restaurant directory-on-steroids, meets every food blog you love. Its purpose is to help you, oh epicurious one, keep track of where you’ve eaten and where you’re dying to eat. You’ll even discover new restaurants you may not have known you were dying to try until you saw it on Sam Sifton’s “Sifty Fifty.”
Have a hankering for a food crawl? Dinevore founder Jeremy Fisher’s “Doubles” list will take you through Queens for some of the yummiest Indo-Trinidadian street food you’ll find in New York. Or, perhaps the “25 Brooklyn Favorites” list from Bon Appétit Magazine’s Andrew Knowlton is more your taste. Either way, the user-friendliness of this tool is fantastic. Hopefully there’s a Dinevore mobile app in the works!
Somewhere in the Twitterverse, at this very moment, there’s a marketing or communications executive plotting a campaign to encourage consumers to tweet about their brand for a chance to win a trip…or a new accessory…or some device that promises to make life worth living. Exhibit A: enter this contest to win a new camera from photographer Scott Bourne.
Twitter contests and reward offers are becoming more commonplace as more companies notice how quickly consumer engagement impacts the volume of online buzz about their products and services. Planning these types of Twitter campaigns can be a logistical headache, especially for professionals who are new to the social media space.
Not so when you use Tweetons. The tool helps brands track their most passionate fans and reward them. Translation – among other services, it can help you plan, execute and select the winner of your next Twitter contest.
Almost five years ago, three savvy San Franciscan tech gurus took note of the increasing number of Twitter contests and brands promising coupons and special prizes to new followers. They created Tweetons and hundreds ofbusinesses, from local restaurants to major consumer brands, have since used the service to reward their brand loyalists on Twitter. One of the great things about Tweetons is the fact that it’s new, so it just keeps getting better. The support staff is hungry for client feedback and want to realize Tweetons’ full potential, so they’re willing to tweak certain features and add new functions to suit your campaign.
The best thing about Tweetons is that it’s free (marketers, rejoice!) so there’s minimal risk involved. It’s definitely worth a try.
Major Spillage: Toyota has launched an app to teach us how to lower our fuel consumption by changing our pedal-to-the-metal driving tactics (aggressive driving and frequent braking are huge fuel wasters — the less fuel, the fewer CO2 emissions). The Glass of Water app is a virtual glass of water that reacts to your driving as if this glass is actually on your dashboard. The app captures distance, driving time, average speed, idle time and water spillage, and you can analyze the results more closely at the website they’ve set up. Disclaimer: Do not check to see how much water you’ve spilled while still operating the motor vehicle.
Let Me Take You Down: To promote the new Lennon exhibition at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the establishment “planted” die-cut strawberries in the Strawberry Field section of Central Park. Curious passersby picked the strawberries to reveal info about the exhibition.
Hearts Will Go On: Providing a look at the Titanic we’ve never seen before, the Expedition Titanic team (no Bill Paxton, unfortunately) will be diving the depths later this August to explore the famous shipwreck — in 3-D. Not only will there be this 3-D footage, but thanks to current social media and digital technology, the team will update Flickr and YouTube in real time and divers themselves will tweet about exploring the wreckage (once they come up for air, we hope).
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All Hail the Giants: The New Meadowlands Stadium opening this fall will have a lot more than flat screens like their Texas rivals – there will be a suite of apps onlookers can use to check game stats, watch video replays and monitor live feeds from other games around the country. Oh – and let’s not forget – one app lets you check the concession stand lines to see which is the shortest.
Mail Art: Riitta Ikonen sends her friend Margaret Huber some of the most interesting/amazing mail – since 2004, Ikonen has sent Huber mail art made from hair, fish, a broken record, etc. Over 100 “postcards” were sent and you can count the ones that were returned on your fingers.
Not Your Average Wedding Video: Check out this music video wedding video done for Lauren and JP down in Georgia. Instead of the traditional vid with the best man’s sloppy speech and the DJ blasting “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” they took a more creative approach. Filmed by Matt Odom of Rock and Roll Hearts (iconic engagement and wedding photos and videos for couples who rock), watch it here.
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Coldstonelaunched a cool Facebook app today where you can actually give a real ice cream sundae to a friend. As a sundae freak (hint, hint), I can definitely appreciate this. What’s interesting is that the app sends the recipient a code to redeem at one of their 1,300 retail locations. This is a great way for a brand to take advantage of e-commerce on Facebook — and an even better way to help a friend beat the heat!
Interview Magazine has released its iPad app in tandem with the gadget’s recent launch and I have to say, it looks awesome. IPad, lucky you; your apps may save you. I was underwhelmed by what you were bringing to the table(t), but my fashion addiction may get the better of me - and you have your apps to thank for that!
The Interview app looks to change the way we “read” magazines, transforming our engagement into a multimedia, immersive and interactive experience. Particularly appealing is the fact that almost all of the app’s content has a video component. According to a post yesterday on Fashionista, 80 percent of the program’s advertisers link directly back to their e-commerce sites and 90 percent offer commercials or other video, as well as the behind-the-scenes videos of the editorial shoots. I am sucker for anything “behind the scenes” – especially when it comes to the creative process. True fashion lovers are not just looking for product; they are looking for a story to unfold – what happened to get from point A to point B?
I expect that all major magazines will be following suit in engaging this new platform…which means I may need to cave for an iPad.
Fan Appz launched a platform yesterday to help Facebook page administrators create and distribute brand-specific polls, quizzes and promotions that fans can share with friends to extend brand awareness and drive traffic.
The platform, called Professional, provides built-in social marketing tools for businesses at a monthly subscription fee of about $50. Each time a fan takes a quiz or participates in a poll, responses can publish to their Facebook stream.
Oh, Radian6…how you’ve fallen victim to the ploys of MTV’s latest garbage truck. Now visitors to MTV’s Jersey Shore site have just another way to see how “cool” the Jersey Shore cast is, through Radian6’s Twitter Tracker.
When I just tried to visit the site, it went black…obviously knowledgeable about the fact I would soon mock it. When Joe from PRNewserchecked, there were only 21 recent tweets about Snooki…I wonder if those were the same 21 people planning to attend Turtle Bay’s $1 Beer Wednesday’s with the Jersey Shore cast in NYC last night (yes, it’s shameful that I somehow got on that bar e-mail distribution list).
I hope Radian6 starts a Twitter Tracker for tweets solely about the absurdity of Jersey Shore. Maybe then, the heads of this ridiculous cast will finally explode and us actual NJ natives - who love our beautiful shore (not Seaside) - can have the last laugh.
When I first heard about Coke Zero’s Facial Profiler on Facebook a few months ago, I thought it was a really cool idea, so I uploaded my photo. The app aims to find your doppelganger via Facebook using face recognition technology. People I’ve never met before often tell me I look familiar, ask me if I have a sister (I don’t) or say I look like some girl they knew from camp (I didn’t even go to sleepaway camp). So I figured Coke Zero might be able to help me find this mysterious army of Alyssa clones. Or, at the very least, match me up with my own brother, since we look exactly alike.
It turns out, face recognition technology still needs a little work. The app did find me a match — her name is even Alyssa! — but she doesn’t look much like me. Our facial features are sort of in the same places and our heads are certainly turned at the same angle, but other than that, I don’t see the resemblance. In fact, I felt pretty good about the photo I uploaded until I saw it side-by-side with her professional headshot, and now I just kind of feel like the ugly sister. But it seems like others using the app have fared better - some of the “Top Matches” they show are uncanny in their resemblance, and make me think some of them might actually just be the exact same person with multiple Facebook profiles. Maybe I’ll try uploading another photo and see what other twinsies Coke can come up with for me.
—Alyssa
[Update: I tried again, and my new match was even worse. Bummer.]
As a dedicated BlackBerry fan I’ve often felt that the iPhone — and to some degree, its cultish following — was somewhat full of hot air about the greatness of the gadget. Turns out, now it literally is.
There’s a new app out now called Blower, which developers claim can be used to “blow out candles, herbs, and refresh your skin during hot summer nights.” Um, wow. How lazy can you be?! Basically, Blower just moves air through the speakers of your iPhone to create, which is exactly how the speakers work when playing music. Sorry, but this sounds like the most superfluous app ever created. I’ll stick to my BlackBerry — and to breathing myself, for that matter.
TechCrunchposted today about an interesting new iPhone application called iCurfew, which allows kids to send their parents an e-mail showing their location. Sort of like FourSquare, but that only the ‘rents can see. It’s certainly an interesting idea — when my brother and I were in high school, we usually preferred to check in with my mom via text message rather than a phone call. I suppose this would be one step easier and makes it harder for teens to be dishonest about their whereabouts (not that I ever was, since I was — and am — a total goody two-shoes). However, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington suggests that kids will find loopholes, like “pay[ing] off someone to hold onto your phone and hang out at the movie theater messaging nice things to your parents while you are off doing God knows what.”
Does this app build trust and encourage communication between parents and children like it claims, or is it too “Big Brother“-ish and will make kids go to greater lengths to conceal their whereabouts? Either way, I think the more important question here is, “Why does your 16-year-old have an iPhone in the first place?”
I’ve long been a tad obsessed with personal finance, and on my most fastidious of days I check on my Mint.com account even before brushing my teeth in the morning. So this new site, Disciplanner.com, is intriguing to say the least. This online goal tracking program allows users to track long-term personal goals along the lines of “exercise more” or “learn piano,” and also encourages users to track those less-than-stellar habits, like how much time is being spent in front of the TV. Disciplanner keeps weekly and all-time records enabling users to keep track of their own progress and growth in areas that they indicate.
Best of all, Disciplanner will never nag you if you’re falling short of your goals one week. Unlike Mint, which I am convinced is trying to get me to forgo caffeine thanks to all their annoying text messages “reminding” me that I’ve gone over my monthly coffee budget. We won’t even go into the site’s opinion on my shoe closet.
Virgin Atlantic has released a “Flying Without Fear” iPhone app for travelers wary of flying high in the sky. The “course” is loaded with commentary from Richard Branson - who apparently states the facts over the fictions associated with flying - and offers exercises for relaxing while on the plane.
Not sure what is more shocking…the 98 percent success rate of the program or the fact that Whoopi Goldberg hasn’t flown in 13 years!
Honestly, they didn’t have to develop an iPhone app for this…they could just upgrade panicky fliers to business class, and I guarantee their fears would evaporate by 100 percent.
Interview Magazine
![When I first heard about Coke Zero’s Facial Profiler on Facebook a few months ago, I thought it was a really cool idea, so I uploaded my photo. The app aims to find your doppelganger via Facebook using face recognition technology. People I’ve never met before often tell me I look familiar, ask me if I have a sister (I don’t) or say I look like some girl they knew from camp (I didn’t even go to sleepaway camp). So I figured Coke Zero might be able to help me find this mysterious army of Alyssa clones. Or, at the very least, match me up with my own brother, since we look exactly alike.
It turns out, face recognition technology still needs a little work. The app did find me a match — her name is even Alyssa! — but she doesn’t look much like me. Our facial features are sort of in the same places and our heads are certainly turned at the same angle, but other than that, I don’t see the resemblance. In fact, I felt pretty good about the photo I uploaded until I saw it side-by-side with her professional headshot, and now I just kind of feel like the ugly sister. But it seems like others using the app have fared better - some of the “Top Matches” they show are uncanny in their resemblance, and make me think some of them might actually just be the exact same person with multiple Facebook profiles. Maybe I’ll try uploading another photo and see what other twinsies Coke can come up with for me.
—Alyssa
[Update: I tried again, and my new match was even worse. Bummer.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kub9xsDBeD1qznz4co1_500.png)
