SEO Werkt!

Hey, how you doing? You’re really pretty in that dress and those shoes. Are those shoes new? No? Could have fooled me. Sit down a minute. I just want to look at you. Did you see that fight outside? Totally two guys hitting each other over some girl. Would you ever let guys fight over you? I would.

Do you know I paint? You should sit for me.

So there’s this new thing, MySecretLuxury.com. It’s totally legit. It was founded by Stacy Rybchin, a really foxy lady who is part of an e-commerce incubator. Smart is sexy. I know.

So they’ve got this site. Totally sexy. Totally angel backed. So Stacy, who I can totally introduce you to, built a subscription and concierge service for your lady parts. Totally sexy. The concierge service is totally cool. You set up these totally sexy experiences for each other. Like this one:

I know, right? You like books, right? I do, too. Totally read like a Mötley Crüe biography a few years ago. Totally read that book about Jenna Jameson. Anyway, that 50 shades thing is a book.

You also can sign up for special subscriptions that range from $500 to $5,000. That gets you toys like once a month. Totally sexy. Why sex toys? Why now?

Stacy totally told me about that in an email. “In the past three years (during a worldwide economic slump), sales of sex toys have reached an all-time high with manufacturers of ben-wah balls reporting a 300% increase in sales and manufactures and distributors of bondage tools reporting a 40% spike in sales,” she said. Recession is sexy. I know, right?

“These compelling numbers and proprietary research conducted by Denslow along with the obvious gap in the marketplace for luxury goods and a guide to help navigate the pleasure product market began the journey to develop MySecretLuxury.com, a site where people could expect high quality, sophisticated design and upscale products delivered with impeccable customer service.” So sexy. Totally.

You’ve got lots of sex toy operators out there, but do you know any as classy as this one? I know, right? Totally. Maybe JimmyJane but do they sell a $15,000 gold-plated dildo? No. They don’t.

Totally sexy, right? So can we get out of here? I can totally set you up with a 50 Shades box if you want. Really? Where, over there? Oh, cool. Totally. Can I have your number?

Yeah, totally understandable. I lost my phone, too. Later, beautiful. Later.

Almost two years after Apple introduced FaceTime, Google and Microsoft are battling to introduce their own video chat acquisitions as new Internet web standards, while FaceTime remains proprietary to Apple.

Almost two years after Apple introduced FaceTime, Google and Microsoft are battling to introduce their own video chat acquisitions as new Internet web standards, while FaceTime remains proprietary to Apple.

A French t-shirt company has brazenly picked a fight with one of the world’s fiercest hacker groups. Anonymous, known for crippling the world’s most secure websites (including the FBI’s), has vowed revenge against apparel company, Early Flicker, who registered the hacker group’s logo as their own intellectual property.

“Their arrogance and ignorance of what they have done will not go unpunished,” promised Anonymous, in a YouTube video (below). “Anonymous will take down any business they have going on the internet and the ninety nine per cent will not stop until the registration has been revoked and a public apology has been made. The name of Anonymous will not be the whore of the world.”

Even if E-Flicker managed to escape the wrath of hackers, the logo is already registered under a Creative Commons intellectual property license, according to a tweet from an Anonymous account:

To these copyright trolls: About all #Anonymous logos are already licensed under creative commons. So good luck with getting a trademark.

— AnonymousIRC (@AnonymousIRC) August 1, 2012

We doubt Anonymous will wait for a cease and desist notice. Just remember not to blink, fight fans, this knockout could come quicker than a bout between Mike Tyson and Richard Simmons.

A French t-shirt company has brazenly picked a fight with one of the world’s fiercest hacker groups. Anonymous, known for crippling the world’s most secure websites (including the FBI’s), has vowed revenge against apparel company, Early Flicker, who registered the hacker group’s logo as their own intellectual property.

“Their arrogance and ignorance of what they have done will not go unpunished,” promised Anonymous, in a YouTube video (below). “Anonymous will take down any business they have going on the internet and the ninety nine per cent will not stop until the registration has been revoked and a public apology has been made. The name of Anonymous will not be the whore of the world.”

Even if E-Flicker managed to escape the wrath of hackers, the logo is already registered under a Creative Commons intellectual property license, according to a tweet from an Anonymous account:

To these copyright trolls: About all #Anonymous logos are already licensed under creative commons. So good luck with getting a trademark.

— AnonymousIRC (@AnonymousIRC) August 1, 2012

We doubt Anonymous will wait for a cease and desist notice. Just remember not to blink, fight fans, this knockout could come quicker than a bout between Mike Tyson and Richard Simmons.

No way. What were they thinking?! Indeed, nothing can raise our eyebrows higher than some cringe-worthy social blunders, especially when performed on social networks. Now that “social” has become digital, one simple “misstep” can set the Interweb ablaze faster than wildfires.

So let’s show some netiquettes, dear social media users. Here are some social media faux pas and how you can avoid them.

Misstep #1: The Automated Greetings

A big no-no. Though automation tools are convenient, your clients, fans, or followers can easily sense the auto-generated, non-personal bot response and will immediately see it as spammy … or worse, lame.

How to Avoid:

Turn off the auto-pilot. Connect with your audience personally and converse with them real time. Don’t let the bot do the talking.

Misstep #2: The Content Pester Master

Want a surefire way to annoy and lose an audience in a jiffy? Bombard their screen with self-talks or multitude of posts. Blasting your audience with content, regardless of how interesting and relevant they can be, will just make them allergic to you.

How to Avoid: Schedule is key. Spread out your posts in different platforms and release them in a timely manner. You may use social media tools, such as Roost, to organize posts to multiple accounts using just one interface. You may also mix things up to expose your content to proper audience, like offering discounts to Twitter followers or place a poll on Facebook.

Misstep #3: The “Go with the Flow” Plan

Some people impulsively launch campaigns without having a clear idea of what they’re getting into. Not just because it is a buzz doesn’t mean anyone can execute it easily and flawlessly. Too many of us launch or share on a whim without thinking if or how it will benefit the audience and even us.

How to Avoid: Have a plan and perform a little research. Find out what people are saying about you or your brand before launching a campaign. What you think is good may be worse for another. Yes, it takes time, money, and effort, but it pays—literally and figuratively—in the end.

Misstep #4: The One-Trick Pony and the Parrot Syndrome

Promoting yourself on social media is fine. In fact, it speaks how serious and bankable you are. What to avoid is the canned plugging and sales pitch. Don’t embarrass yourself with redundancies. It only means you have nothing else to say. Better to fix that broken record immediately.

How to Avoid:

Build yourself subtly by executing different strategies to establish rapport and engage your community. You can share interesting trivia, news, or other nuggets of information to keep your audience coming back.

Misstep #5: The Uber-Lengthy Updates

What can easily repel audience next to flooding content? Lengthy posts. How did this become a faux pas? Well, you’re not considering your audience’s time. While you want to make your posts packed with information, you often overdo it.

How to Avoid:

Make “less is more” your mantra.

Misstep #6: The Online Brawl

Another faux pas you can see all the time. It is definitely easier to engage in a cat fight online than resorting to a face-to-face bout, but it also certainly makes it viral. Lashing out online easily turns off your audience.

How to Avoid:

Settle the fight personally and privately. Don’t involve your “army” of fans or followers, because they may just bail you.

Misstep #7: The Personal and Business Account Mix Up

Yes, you want to update your audience with the latest trends and whatnot, but please, don’t let private matters “leak” in the public, especially when you’re handling a business account. Even if posting something personal to your business profile is unintentional, it can cause a one-time embarrassment or a recurring nightmare.

How to Avoid:

If you’re venturing in a business, separate your personal with your business account. Better yet, keep private information to yourself. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if what happens that night ends up on Facebook.

Bottom line: Learn from the social media blunders of others to keep yourself off the virtual chopping block. After all, it wouldn’t hurt if we mind our manners online, eh?

Image Source: Courtesy of Fountain Head via Flickr

The post Oops! Social Media Faux Pas and How to Avoid Them appeared first on About Social Media.

Apple’s efforts to fight the Amazon Appstore name have picked up, with a new court filing accusing Amazon of intending to confuse consumers.

Apple is continuing its fight against a Russian hacker who is supplying a way for iPhone users to download in-app purchases without paying. The company is now including a unique identifier in all in-app purchase receipts, according to MacRumors.

Last week Russian hacker Alexey V. Borodin developed a way for iPhone users to steal in-app purchases without having to jailbreak their phones. The method involved installing two security certificates and change the DNS settings on the phone to download in-app purchases over a special connection. Apple soon came after Borodin, shutting down his IP’s access to Apple servers and asking his Internet service provider to take down his website, In-App.com. Borodin, however, dodged Apple’s efforts by setting up his website outside of Russia and devising a way to steal in-app purchases without going through Apple’s App Store servers.

However, Apple isn’t giving up just yet. As MacRumors observes, the company is now tracking the UDID associated with each in-app purchase. That is, Apple is watching the unique identifier associated with each phone that performs this transaction. It is then sending that data on the receipts to the developers.

Apple recently decided to start rejecting applications using UDIDs, since gathering data from them is a slippery privacy slope. MacRumors notes that this could be a placeholder for a new type of identification that will be associated with each in-app purchase, or it could be that Apple wants to know which users specifically are stealing in-app purchases using Borodin’s system.

For now, Borodin continues to use his YouTube account, ZonD80, to promote his tactics, though Apple had his first video introducing the hack taken down.

via MacRumors; Angry apple image via Shutterstock

Filed under: mobile, security

Samsung has acquired the mobile business of British chipmaker CSR for $310 million. CSR, a public company, has been hit by the falling fortunes of its customers such as Research in Motion and Nokia, with its share price dropping by as much as 50 percent in the past couple of years. There also appears to be a global patent play here for Samsung in its ongoing fight with rivals such as Apple. CSR could prove a useful arrow in Samsung’s quiver.

Samsung is also purchasing a 4.9 percent stake of the main CSR company itself for another $35 million, which secures its access to CSR’s IP and its ownership of 21 U.S. patents in mobile technology.

CSR – which specialises in Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and other chips – will sell its 300-person mobile business in an all-cash deal. The operation will become part of Samsung’s component division, which also happens to supply electronics to the likes of Apple and others. CSR’s new focus will now be on its so-called “five high growth markets” of Voice & Music, Automotive Infotainment, Indoors Location, Imaging and Bluetooth.

CSR CEO Joep van Beurden said that “under Samsung’s ownership the handset operations will be in a better position to prosper in the global handset market.”

Last year CSR bought Zoran, a U.S. video chip specialist, for $484 million, though 1,000 jobs were subsequently cut and preceded heavy losses at CSR, leading to shareholder angst. Though that blow will now be softened for them by the Samsung deal, with around $285 million being issued as a dividend.

Prognosis dim, RIM is inching towards its demise. The company is coming off one of its worst quarters ever, its stock value has evaporated, and it just can’t seem to finish BlackBerry 10. Things aren’t going well, to say the least.

But while journalists, analysts, and investors all have their first drafts of RIM’s eulogy written up, the company isn’t going down without a fight. Or at least that’s what its latest leaked roadmap indicates.

The document, leaked to enthusiast site BlackBerryOS and posted below, sketches both the near- and long-term future of RIM. This year, the company plans to release a 4G version of its Playbook tablet, a device that’s been rumored for a long while now. So no surprises there.

Sadly, the really interesting stuff won’t happen until next year, when RIM plans to release its first BlackBerry 10 devices. RIM confirmed this delay last week, which only added to the company’s resulting stock plunge.

The push will start in the first quarter with a pair of devices dubbed London and Nevada,  two devices that represent the past and future of RIM’s industrial design: While the Nevada will feature the same keyboard that BlackBerry users know and love, the London looks like it’s going to strongly resemble the average Android phone.

Notably, as BlackBerryOS points out, the general receptiveness of Europe to the BlackBerry may force RIM to start its BlackBerry OS push there before the U.S.

RIM also plans to release a 10-inch version of the Playbook, which will likely be the first tablet to natively run BlackBerry 10. Codenamed “Blackforest” the device is queued for a Q3 release.

While all of this sounds promising, it’s hard to avoid one seemingly inevitable question: Will it all be too little, too late? By the time RIM gets around to releasing its first BlackBerry 10 devices, the battle between Windows Phone 8, Android Jelly Bean, and iOS 6 will be well underway, leaving RIM lagging behind in a race it can’t afford to lose.

Then again, who knows if RIM will even be around to finish at all.

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat