Pictures users have deleted from Facebook months or even years ago may still exist, it has been revealed.

Facebook says it’s working to fix flaws allowing deleted photos to hibernate on various data servers.

“We have been working with our content delivery network (CDN) partner to significantly reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist,” the company told Ars Technica, who first reported that users were having trouble deleting photos permanently in 2009.

Many blogs show people how to access deleted Facebook pictures by way of viewing and saving the direct link to a photo URL the same way you would view a page source.

Once you delete a photo, Facebook friends won’t be able to see the photo unless you access the direct page link for the photo. Photos are generally removed by editing an album, clicking on the “edit photo” prompt and selecting the checkbox on your Timeline and clicking “remove” under photo.

Facebook acknowledges in its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: “when you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).”

Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens responded to the Ars Technica team that the social network has been checking the URLs of deleted photos and Facebook is working on changing the content delivery networks so that photos will truly be let go within 45 days from deletion.

Check out the video above to learn more. Tell us in the comments, if you have experienced this photo flaw.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, BluEyedA73.

More About: Facebook, mashable video, privacy, Social Media

The Giants may have won the Super Bowl, but Madonna won the Google search competition.

The 53-year-old halftime performer was Google’s most-searched term during the 2012 Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

Google released its most-searched list in a blog post Monday.

The second most-searched term was halftime show, further suggesting football is second priority to Americans during the game. The Patriots, the losing team, was the most-searched term actually relating to the game and the third-most searched term. New England quarterback Tom Brady was fourth on Google’s list followed by the Super Bowl victor, the Giants, which was the fifth most-searched term.

Considering all the Google traffic, it should come as no surprise that Super Bowl viewers weren’t just focused on their TV screens during the game. They used their smartphones and tablets to search ads, halftime performers and players while watching. Some 41% of Super Bowl searches came from mobile devices, up from 21% last year.

Following Brady, Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, Aaron Hernandez and Danny Woodhead rounded out the list of most-searched players during the game.

The Super Bowl ads brought in their fare share of Google traffic this year, with Acura, GoDaddy and M&M winning the Google traffic competition.

The Super Bowl’s first-ever live stream attracted search traffic of its own, particularly for a Spanish language version of the game and from European countries France and Germany.

Google’s blog post also includes a Think Insights infographic (below) on the online spread of the 2012 Super Bowl.

Did you watch the Super Bowl online or on a television? Did you have your tablet, smartphone or computer on hand for game time searches? Tell us how you watched in the comments below.

BONUS: All the 2012 Super Bowl Commercials

Phone Innovators: Official 2012 Best Buy Game Day Commercial

Watch as phone innovation meets phone-buying innovation, at Best Buy. Choose Phone Freedom and get any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans, with lots of unbiased advice. Reserve a $50 gift card at http://www.bestbuy.com/phonefreedom now for your next upgrade.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Google, madonna, Super Bowl, Super Bowl 2012

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Need a new jawbone? Now you can print one.

An 83-year-old British woman recently underwent the first-ever custom transplant of a lower jaw made by a 3D printer.

According to 3Ders.org, the Biomedical Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium announced last week that it implanted a printed jawbone in June, which was created by metal part maker LayerWise.

The patient — who can now chew and speak with ease — suffered from a chronic bone infection. Doctors were worried that at her age, reconstructive surgery could have caused complications.

The 3D-printed jawbone, which is made of titanium powder, was heated and infused together in layers. Once the design was created, it took only a few hours to print. The new jaw weighs slightly more than the previous one.

The woman is currently gearing up to receive a set of dentures that will be attached to the implant in a follow-up procedure.

Doctors involved with the surgery believe that more 3D parts can be created specifically for patients in the near future.

“Computer technology is causing a revolution in the medical industry,” professor Jules Poukens of the University of Hasselt said in a statement. “A traditional surgery takes up to 20 hours, and the patient should definitely stay two to four weeks in the hospital. But this operation lasted four hours and the woman could go home after four days.”

3D printing is becoming more popular thanks to new research and companies dedicating effort to the movement. In fact, a company called Made in Space is working to help astronauts print out parts such as wrenches and nails for spacecraft and space stations while in orbit.

In addition, file-sharing company The Pirate Bay last week introduced a new content category called “Physibles,” which is designed to allow people to pass physical objects to one another via the Internet. The term refers to data files that are actually able to become physical objects via 3D printing technology.

Do you think 3D printing of body parts will become increasingly popular in the future? What do you think about the concept? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More About: 3D printers, 3d printing, MakerBot

A group of former Facebook users based in Orland Park, Ill., fed up with the mandatory changes that came with Facebook’s network-wide switch to Timeline, has created Friendio for Facebook defectors.

Friendio is an alternative social network to Facebook that promises more privacy and control, say its creators. The new social network feels like a pared-down Facebook, with similar tabs and capabilities for friend requests, messages and notifications.

“Friendio does not modify privacy settings, nor do we force people to create a scrapbook of their life,” said Doug Freitag, the company’s president in a statement.

Friendio is trying to distinguish itself from Facebook Timeline, pushing the slogan, “It’s all about you.” The layout and theme of Friendio are completely customizable. The company also allows open access to its API for developers and curious users to play around with the new tool.

Ranked high in the site’s ethos is the fact that its privacy policy will never change. The creators want to take a stand against mandatory changes and additions users may not want such as Facebook’s implementation of Timeline.

After registering for a Friendio Network profile, users will receive a confirmation email that looked eerily like a Facebook email. The new company has adopted Facebook’s blue banner in its emails. Friendio, which has its own Facebook page (see video above), allows users to log into Facebook to invite your friends to join you.

On this new social network there are new photo, music and video sharing capabilities. Plus, Facebook-like Friendio pages that operate like fan pages — both share a “like” button. Check out the Friendio Fandango page, complete with a wall for comments and tabs for info, notes, events, music, photos and videos.

Will you be switching to Friendio — or giving it a try?

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, magerleagues.

More About: Facebook, mashable video, Social Media, social networking, startup

The Red Hot Chili Peppers just released an interactive version of the music video for the band’s latest single, “Look Around.”

The non-interactive version of the video was released on Jan. 26 and features each band member doing a full performance in his own room.

In the interactive version, users can pan the camera back and forth between rooms at will, zoom in and out of different aspects — and discover hidden easter eggs that contain links to photos and videos.

More and more artists are creating interactive music videos. Since Arcade Fire’s epic technical achievement with the “Wilderness Downtown” in 2010, we’ve seen interactive videos from Devo, Bynars, OK Go, Danger Mouse and more.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are embracing digital in a big way with the band’s latest album, “I’m With You.” In addition to the interactive music video, the band has an official iPhone app [iTunes link] and members of the band are avid tweeters.

What do you think of the video? Does this break new ground in interactive performance? Let us know in the comments.

More About: interactive video, look around, red hot chili peppers, trending, Video

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Take a look, it’s in a book, a reading rainbow.

The PBS program was cut because nobody would fund it. But John Grant, who was at the time in charge of content at Reading Rainbow’s home station, told NPR that a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming was also to blame.

He said the Bush administration believed in funding programs that taught children how to read, with tools like phonics and spelling. Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read — and encouraged them to pick up books.

Levar Burton, Reading Rainbow’s executive producer and host, thinks the latter goal is still relevant. And he plans to use digital media to bring the show back.

“There is a brand new generation of kids who could definitely use the kind of spark and inspiration Reading Rainbow provided where actually becoming a reader is concerned,” Burton told Mashable. “As far as I can tell, reading will never go out of style, and neither will good old fashioned storytelling.”

Burton began talking about the show’s resurrection almost immediately after it ended. In February of 2009, he tweeted he would move forward with a new version of Reading Rainbow: “webisodes for adults.” Whatever that meant, unfortunately, the plan never surfaced.

In September, Burton launched RRKids, which promises to resurrect Reading Rainbow for kids in a multimedia fashion.

The site currently sells episodes of Reading Rainbow, but Burton, who is also famous for his roles in Roots and Star Trek: the Next Generation, has other products in mind. The first: a mobile app.

“The center-point of the App is books,” Burton told Mashable. “Wonderful, lightly enhanced digital books for children. However we’re also very interested in delivering an enriching experience to kids, much like classic Reading Rainbow did on TV.”

He calls the app “the first offering in a game plan” that will also include DVDs and streaming of classic Reading Rainbow episodes. According to the RRKids website, it will deliver 100s of books with a “Reading Rainbow-like” experience, though Burton didn’t expand upon what that entails in app form.

Last week, Burton rallied his 1.74 million Twitter followers to help take the @readingrainbow handle back from a squatter; Twitter gave it to him within hours. The account will help the promote Reading Rainbow app.

Reading Rainbow was the third longest-running children’s program in PBS history, outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. During its run, it won more than 24 Emmys. It also witnessed a decline in reading time in the United States during the same period.

According to a 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, the number of 13-year-olds who were daily readers dropped 14 percent between 1984 and 2004. The percentage of 17-year-olds who were non-readers doubled.

At a time when the population is relying less upon reading and, in some ways, even television, a classic television show about books seems like the definitive vehicle for nostalgia.

With new digital packaging that Burton hopes will appeal to the wired generation, he is hoping to restore Reading Rainbow’s educational value as well.

“Every day of my life someone comes up to me and tells me about the impact the show had on them growing up,” Burton says. “it’s no secret that our educational system is no longer the platinum standard on the world stage that it once was. This is simply my way of continuing to do what I’ve always done, just in a different medium.”

Image courtesy of GPN/Nebraska ETV Network and WNED Buffalo

More About: apps, Levar Burton, pbs, Reading Rainbow

The site Good Ereader reports that sources “close to the situation” say Amazon will open up a single store in the Seattle area (Amazon is based in Seattle). Amazon apparently plans to open it early enough to capitalize on the lucrative holiday season.

Intended to be more of a boutique than a big box, the Amazon store would mainly be a place where shoppers can buy Kindle ereaders, tablets and their related accessories as well as other “high margin” items. The design of the store, said to be contracted through a shell company, is apparently modeled after the Apple Store.

Amazon’s store will also stock physical books that are exclusive to Amazon. The company launched its own publishing division last, but any independent authors that join are shut out of major retail bookstores like Barnes & Noble. The Amazon store would give their books a place to appear on actual shelves.

If the report is true, the store would be a strange move for a company synonymous with the efficiency and convenience of online retail. Not having to deal with the overhead costs of maintaining a network of stores is the key ingredient to how Amazon stays so competitive. More than that, opening a retail store is a kind of philosophical throwback for the company — akin to Google creating a microfiche search service.

However, the report cites some factors that led to the decision. The war Amazon’s been fighting over sales tax features prominently. Many states have been moving toward requiring Amazon to pay sales tax on purchases made in that state, something online retailers have been traditionally exempt from. if Amazon is going to be forced to charge sales tax whether or not it operates a retail establishment in a particular state, then there’s less reason to hold back.

Amazon is said to be testing the waters here, seeing if a chain of small boutique stores would be profitable. With the first store, the company will both get valuable experience in running a retail establishment as well as get feedback on what customers would expect from an Amazon store.

No need to wait for the store to open, though — sound off now. What would you like to see from an Amazon retail store? Let us know in the comments.

Image by Rico Mossesgeld, Technograph

More About: amazon, Amazon Store, Apple Store, Kindle

For more Business coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Chrysler is investigating why the two-minute ad, which features the actor/director declaring this moment to be America’s “halftime,” got taken down, a rep told Mashable. At the time of this writing, the ad was back up on Chrysler’s YouTube channel.

According to multiple reports, there was a message on the channel Monday morning explaining the ad violated NFL copyrights. An NFL rep declined comments on the issue, deferring calls to Chrysler. However, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Detroit Free Press that the league didn’t take the ad down and is asking Google to investigate.

The ad was never taken down from the NFL’s official site. Reps from Google could not be reached for comment.

The disappearance of the ad for a short time put a kink in Chrysler’s social media campaign. The carmaker was encouraging users to share the ad and then watch its progress via an interactive map showing shares across the country.

More About: Chrysler, nfl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads

The diversified technology and manufacturing company announced on Monday it is suing the startup over alleged infringement of seven of its thermostat tech patents.

The patents are, among other things, related to use of natural language, user interfaces, a thermostat’s inner design, an electric circuit used to divert power from the user’s home electrical system to provide power to a thermostat and controlling a thermostat with information stored in a remote location. The lawsuit also names Best Buy, which sells the Nest Labs thermostat.

“From our iconic ’round thermostat’ to the first programmable and simple-to-use touch screen thermostats, Honeywell is known for setting the standard in home comfort and energy efficiency.” said Beth Wozniak, the president of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Controls, in a statement.

Among diverse products that range from aerospace products to transportation systems, Honewell sells a line of programmable and manual thermostats. Some of its thermostats, like those made by other companies, are round or have touch screens — both features of Nest that Wozniak referenced. Take a look at some of Nest’s other features in the gallery below.

Mashable has contacted Nest Labs and will update this article when we hear back.

Updated: Nest Labs tells Mashable it only heard of the lawsuit when Honeywell issued a press release this morning and have not yet reviewed it.

Nest Thermostat Box

Probably some of the nicest-looking thermostat packaging you'll ever see.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Honeywell, lawsuit, nest labs, Thermostat

For a network that produces and reproduces millions of pieces of content daily, the company relies on a number of editors for each category. And as one of the most popular “explore” category on Tumblr, you can guarantee the “LOL” tag requires some serious filtering.

Jake Fogelnest is a comedy writer, DJ, producer and actor. You can now add Tumblr editor to the list, too. The company revamped its community editors about a month ago — joining Fogelnest is a slew of 25 other comedians, writers and creatives.

“I’m kind of obsessed,” says Fogelnest about his new position. “I spend all day with Tumblr open in a window.”

All promoted content on the tag is hand-picked by its editors. There is an extra star button at the top left of the page, alongside the heart and reblog features. Fogelnest and the other editors are allowed to promote up to ten posts daily to be featured on the LOL tag.

“I try to really keep in mind who is following the LOL tag,” explains Fogelnest. “Is this just funny to me, or will that be funny to everyone?”

The nature of the web allows memes to be born and die within the same week, so staying on top of quick-moving content can be tricky.

Tumblr approaches its community editing by selecting users who branch off into various styles of humor. To name a few, other LOL editors include Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Kelly Oxford and Megan Amram.

“There’s a lot that I find particularly funny, but not every LOL editor would. They’re all great people, but we’re stylistically very different,” says Fogelnest. “I feel very much in the middle. I come from the Upright Citizens Brigade New York alt-comedy world — since I was like, 15. But, I’m also completely enamored with Internet culture.”

Although the editors have been selected to cover various genres of humor, Fogelnest admits there is always the risk of editors promoting the same thing. Most recently, there was an issue with the video of Kristen Bell freaking out over a sloth. As a comedian, Fogelnest responded with just that — a little bit of humor.

“There’s a certain amount of Internet etiquette that I try to follow,” says Fogelnest. “I also try to make sure it’s properly attributed — that the person has always created it originally.”

While talking with Fogelnest, he filtered through the LOL tag content and selected a few that he found particularly worthy of being featured. As someone in the entertainment industry, his influence in the category is pop culture-based, mixed with Internet absurdity and nonsense.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” he says. “People are making the craziest, greatest stuff of all time. I don’t think I’ve ever used all ten of my promotions in a day, but it’s great to be able to share it with lots of people.”

1. Wheel of Fortune and "That Sh*t Cray"

"To me, this is great because everyone knows the Watch the Throne album. It's something that taps directly into the [LOL tag] zeitgeist."

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: features, humor, Jake Fogelnest, tumblr

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

A new study from the Archives of Neurology says playing brain stimulating games can improve your memory and delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Traditional brain games are scientifically designed to boost cognitive activity and enhance memory.

The market for mobile brain gaming apps is booming. Lumosity, one of the top creators of brain-training exercises and applications for web and mobile, raised $32.5 million for its brain training apps in 2011.

But scientist are finding that many games requiring focus — including Angry Birds — give the brain a healthy workout. Scientists say playing games, reading and writing all slow the growth of amyloid, the brain protein scientists think might cause the memory loss disease.

The Alzhemier’s Association told ABC News that the study “contains some valuable new data regarding the possible relationship between modifiable lifestyle risk factors and the brain changes that are indicative of Alzheimer’s disease.”

One hundred-year-old Kathleen Connell of the UK is the perfect example of a gamer who spends a couple hours per day playing brain games on her Nintendo DS to keep her mind young. A few of Connell’s favorite Nintendo DS games include Art Academy, Brain Trainer, Scrabble and Family Fortunes, she told The Sun. Brain Trainer calculated Connell’s mental age at 64.

“The Nintendo has been a great help to me, it’s absolutely amazing,” she told The Sun. “If there’s any secret to a long life it’s to think positive and keep your mind active.”

If the study and Connell’s advice are true, everyone at any age should play brain games to stay sharp. What are your favorite brain game apps? Check out our favorites in the gallery.

Brain Challenge by Gameloft for iOS

Brain Challenge tests visual, memory, logic, math and focus to give one's brain the exercise it needs to stay healthy.

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alex-mit

More About: android, apps, brain games, Gaming, iphone, nintendo ds, trending

Google India did not reveal which sites were removed, but the company has stated it will take down anything which violates Indian law. Reuters reports Facebook also removed content from some “Indian domain websites” and that the company would make a statement later.

According to Indian media and the Associated Press, a New Delhi court Monday issued Google, Facebook, YouTube, Blogspot and other Internet companies a two-week ultimatum for delivering plans to actively supervise their networks.

The Indian government has been aggressively lobbying 22 online companies to scrub content deemed “anti-religious” or “anti-social.” Indian officials consider American Internet standards unacceptable for the country’s 100-plus million online citizens.

The Indian government’s efforts to censor the web have alarmed proponents of online free speech around the world. But Indian government officials dismissed those fears, citing a goal of national unity in a country with over 2,000 ethnic groups and subscribers to every major religion.

“There is no question of any censorship,” said Indian communications minister Sachin Pilot. “They all have to operate within the laws of the country.”

Pilot claimed to have enough evidence to accuse 21 sites for “promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration,” and he believes that anyone “hurt” by online content should have a legal recourse to action.

The move is the latest chapter of India’s struggle to maintain control over its growing online community, which is the third largest of any country. (But with 1.17 billion people, Internet penetration per capita remains low.)

Last April, the Indian government passed regulations that required websites to remove any material considered “grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous,” “ethnically objectionable,” “disparaging” or that impersonates someone else. And in December of last year, India’s government called for Internet companies to screen content before users posted it, a task considered impossible by many.

According to Google’s Transparency Report, the Indian government asked the company to remove content 68 times between January and June of last year, and 51% of those requests were at least partially complied with.

Earlier, Facebook India gave a compliance report to the court Monday while also saying that no public complaints have been lodged against the company. India, with more than 43 million Facebook users (second highest in the world) is Facebook’s third-fastest growing market.

Do you think the Indian government is justified in trying to remove objectionable content from the Internet? Sound off in the comments below.

Update: According to a Google spokesperson, “this step is in accordance with Google’s longstanding policy of responding to court orders.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Tarzan9280

More About: censorship, Facebook, Google, india, internet

Verizon announced Monday that it is taking a crack at the video streaming business.

The company is joining forces with Coinstar, the parent company of popular DVD rental kiosk business Redbox — a move that will take on rival video rental company Netflix.

Verizon, which didn’t elaborate on prices or service details, plans to roll out streaming to customers nationwide later this year. It will give them access to DVD and Blu-ray discs in addition to streaming movies. Customers will be able to access the streaming content on devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs.

“Together, we are erasing old technology boundaries, freeing people to spontaneously enjoy the entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the devices and media they prefer, at home or away,” said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon consumer and mass business markets.

The new subscription service will be offered to anyone in the U.S., regardless of whether or not they have its existing FiOS TV service or Verizon-operated broadband. Redbox’s rental kiosks will still be available for those who prefer picking up a DVD at the store.

Verizon will own 65% of venture, and Coinstar will own the rest.

The news comes as Netflix last week announced it had added 220,000 streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter and posted revenues of $876 million, beating Wall Street forecasts. The company ended the quarter with 24.4 million total subscribers, 21.6 million of whom subscribe to Neflix’s video streaming service. About 10.4 million subscribers continue to get streaming plus DVDs.

Netflix experienced a steep drop in stock price in 2011 after hiking prices for some users and launching a rebrand of its DVD-only service called Qwikster. Both announcements upset many of its customers and even caused some to cancel their services.

Do you think Verizon’s new service could take on Netflix? What’s your preferred way to watch movies and TV on demand?

More About: redbox, Top Stories, verizon, verizon fios tv

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Google just debuted a project dedicated to attacking some of the biggest problems facing civilization, such as global warming, and proposing “radical” ideas for solving them.

Called “Solve for X,” the idea resembles TED (Technology Entertainment and Design), the series of conferences that feature industry leaders exploring big-picture ideas and how they can improve society. Solve for X, however, appears to be more focused on global problems, using them as opportunities to encourage “moonshot” thinking.

The project puts a big emphasis on out-of-the-box proposals — the more audacious, the better. Still, even though Google encourages ideas that “sound like science fiction,” they should still be based on some technological breakthrough that’s realistically attainable.

From the Solve for X website:

This combination of things — a huge problem to solve, a radical solution for solving it and the breakthrough technology to make it happen — is the essence of a moonshot.

Solve for X is intended to be a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.

Although Google hasn’t provided any more details other than what’s on the site, a person claiming to be involved in the project posted some more details on Flickr. Steve Jurveston, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurveston, said that on Feb. 2 he was at a Solve for X retreat and that he and each of the other attendees had to come up with a “big hairy topic that needs addressing.”

Jurveston says the first session was on water scarcity, and that in 18 years the world will have 40 percent less water than needed. One of the proposed solutions, as Jurveston describes, was “forward osmosis with recycled ammonium salts, the simple ones that are used in gingerbread cookies.”

Jurveston also said there would be more details coming Tuesday.

What problems would you like to see Google’s Solve for X project attack? Have your say in the comments.

More About: Google, Solve for X, TED

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Ferris Bueller took the day.

Honda’s CR-V ad featuring Bueller star Matthew Broderick taking a day off (above) was the most-buzzed Super Bowl ad, according to Zeta Interactive. Honda’s ad received 91% positive buzz, narrowly beating out M&M’s “Mrs. Brown” ad and Budweiser’s “Eternal Optimism,” spot, which both got 90%, according to Zeta, which analyzes more than 200 million blogs, tweets, message boards and other social media posts.

Zeta’s full list reads as follows:

• 1. “Matthew’s Day Off” (Honda) 91% positive.
• 2. “Mrs. Brown: Sexy and You Known It” (M&Ms) 90%
• 3. “Eternal Optimism: Block Party” (Budweiser) 90%
• 4. “Transcations- Seinfeld” (Acura) 89%
• 5. “Dog Race” (Skechers) 89%
• 6. “First Time – Italian” (Fiat) 89%
• 7. “Feel the Free” (2nd Story Software TaxACT) 87%
• 8. “Return of the King — Prohibition” (Budweiser) 87%
• 9. “The Dog Strikes Back” (Volkswagen) 87%
• 10. “Catch” (Coca-Cola), “Clint Eastwood” (Chrysler), “Fatherhood” (E*Trade) 86% (three-way tie)

Meanwhile, pulling up the rear on the list were:

• 1. “GS” (Lexus) 62% positive
• 2. “Think Fast” (Hyundai) 73%
• 3. “Happy Grad” (Chevrolet) 73%
• 4. “Green Hell” (Cadillac) 75%

It should be noted that Zeta’s most positive buzz ranking doesn’t always equal the most popular ad. Last year, for instance, Bridgestone’s “Reply All” was number one on the positive buzz list and Volkswagen’s “The Force” was number three. (In between was PepsiMax’s “First Date.” See all three below.)

Nevertheless, “The Force” wound up being the most-shared ad for all of 2011. The cumulative total of views for various YouTube versions of “Reply All” hasn’t eclipsed 1 million, while “The Force” has more than 50 million views as of this writing.

What do you think? What was the best ad of the night? Sound off in the comments.

2011′s Most Popular Super Bowl Ads

More About: ferris bueller's day off, honda, Super Bowl ads

During the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl, viewers witnessed one of the most memorable commercials ever, “1984.” Twenty-eight years later, Apple ignored the most widely watched television event of the year and is instead mocked by one of its chief rivals. Did it make a mistake by skipping Super Bowl XLVI?

Back in 1984, Apple’s somewhat dark and forbidding Ridley Scott-directed spot shocked some, but intrigued millions. It didn’t show a single product, but teased the introduction, just two days after the game, of the first Macintosh, promising, “you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984′.”

According to Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography:

“It was a sensation. That evening all three networks and fifty local stations aired news stories about the ad, giving it a viral life unprecedented in the pre–YouTube era. It would eventually be selected by both TV Guide and Advertising Age as the greatest commercial of all time.”

Fast forward to 2012. Apple is not mentioned at all during the rather thrilling contest between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Instead, electronics manufacturer Samsung makes fun of Apple—without ever saying or showing its name or products. Samsung has actually been running these Apple-mocking ads for weeks. They all revolve around the same core idea: Apple fans camping outside an Apple store, waiting for the next big thing. There’s usually a sign hanging in the stark, unbranded, white store: “It’s Coming.” The central conceit: Samsung Galaxy owners keep showing up and wowing the assembled campers with the tech feats of the thin, light and powerful Samsung smartphones. This last Super Bowl spot tied together virtually every thread of the previous commercials into a rather raucous singing and dancing extravaganza. This time, however, the commercial featured the 5-inch, stylus-sporting Samsung Galaxy Note.

The ads are a very smart bit of counter programming by Samsung. Funny, memorable, and maybe a little bit true. Why do people wait outside an Apple store for, say, the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 when they know they could just as easily order one of them online? Is being first that important?

For Apple, though, there is a bigger concern here. By not appearing at the Super Bowl, Apple is letting its competition frame the discussion. Founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, who died months before the Samsung ads started airing, would likely have wanted to create some sort of counter attack. He was, after all, the chief architect of the Macintosh and the remarkable first ad promoting it.

So, yes, why not run an ad that points out that Apple does more than simply make gorgeous hardware? Maybe a new spot that somehow spins the concept of an ecosystem that spans multiple screens and even the cloud? It’s not a bad idea, but Apple won’t do that. If it was going to run a Super Bowl ad, it would need a new product, or at least the hint of a new product to promote.

And that’s where Apple’s real troubles begin.

Apple’s Hardware Gap

In case you haven’t noticed, Apple’s iPad’s second birthday came and went without the introduction of the eagerly anticipated third generation of the landmark tablet. There is an iPad 3 in the works. Everyone knows it and numerous leaks all but prove it. We even have some ideas about the specs; a faster A6 processor and a high-rez retina display with edge-to-edge screen coverage. It may also be thinner and lighter or perhaps there will be multiple versions, including a 7-inch iPad.

Still, for all we think we know, Apple was not ready to tell us anything about it during the Super Bowl.

Here’s a more distressing fact. It has been more than a year since Apple released significant new hardware. Obviously, I’m aware of the iPhone 4S, which launched just a day before Jobs died. It’s a wonderful phone, and who doesn’t love Siri (some, too much)? But it’s essentially an iPhone 4 update and not a wholly new gadget.

Does anyone realize how long we’ve been talking about new Apple hardware with nothing to show for it? People began talking about the iPhone 5 almost immediately after Apple shipped the iPhone 4. They started talking iPad 3 in January 2011 and Apple iTV buzz has been going strong since last fall (when Isaacson’s Jobs biography reported that the late CEO had “solved TV”).

The last year or so has, at least on the hardware side, been nothing but a big, pregnant pause for Apple. I knew that Jobs’s death would have an impact, but I never feared Apple would be rudderless without him. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook is a good manager with a deep understanding of Apple, but I do not think he has Jobs’s innate vision.

A Big Test

I know all this will change in short order. Before his death, Jobs and his team laid the groundwork for a host of new products. Apple will unveil an iPad 3 as early as March. We could see the iPhone 5 in June. Then, perhaps, it’ll be business as usual for the wildly successful tech company (which now has a boatload of cash to spend—certainly enough to afford every single Super Bowl XLVI commercial). Whatever Apple introduces this spring, it will be the company’s first hardware introduction since Jobs’s death: in other words, a huge test for Apple and for Cook. I have spent a lot of time pondering if Apple would now do things differently. Cook does not command the stage like Jobs. Nor does Phil Schiller (senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing ). Scott Forestall (senior vice president of iOS Software) has frenetic energy, but not Jobs’s magnetism. Is Apple, right now, struggling with how to unveil its next big thing?

While Apple ostensibly figures this out, companies like Samsung will continue to take the national stage and beat up on the Cupertino company. Apple will still run its warm, fuzzy ads touting current products and services, but is that enough?

I worry that without Steve Jobs, Apple may have lost some of its fighting spirit. For all his quirks, Jobs was a fighter. He liked to deride the competition and then beat them, as publicly as possible. Imagine if right after the Samsung Super Bowl ad, Apple had run some sort of iconic spot for, say, the Apple iTV: “Television is about to change forever, thanks to the company that, 28 years ago, changed computing forever. Watch…” Now that would’ve been cool. Jobs would have done it. What is Cook’s plan?

Bonus: All the Commercials That Did Air During the Super Bowl

Phone Innovators: Official 2012 Best Buy Game Day Commercial

Watch as phone innovation meets phone-buying innovation, at Best Buy. Choose Phone Freedom and get any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans, with lots of unbiased advice. Reserve a $50 gift card at http://www.bestbuy.com/phonefreedom now for your next upgrade.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: apple, samsung, Super Bowl, trending

Many of the site’s early adopters are using it is to track real-life projects such as recipes, design, and even wedding planning.

Plenty of users see Pinterest as a source of creative inspiration. Along with our partners at CNN iReport, we want to see how many people are turning their pins into projects. We’re asking you to show us what you pin and how it comes to real life.

Here’s how to get involved:

• Pin a craft, recipe or project you love.
• Follow the directions and reproduce it in real life, snapping photos along the way. Be sure to take a photo of the finished product!
• Upload the photos of your project, along with a screengrab of the original “pin,” to iReport (you can get started by clicking the button at the bottom of this post). In the text, tell us how your project turned out compared to the original and how the process went. Was it easier or harder than you thought? Will you use Pinterest for real-life inspiration again?
• If you are a Twitter, Instagram, or PicPlz user, you can also send us your submission with the hashtag #pinstoprojects.

We can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on. The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 17. The best Pinterest-inspired projects could be featured on CNN and Mashable.

Need some inspiration? Check out Mashable‘s own Lauren Indvik and Stephanie Buck.

More About: ireport, pinterest, Social Media

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Websites from Coca-Cola, Acura and film Act of Valor crashed Sunday night after being overwhelmed by Super Bowl ad-driven traffic. In Coke’s case, a Facebook app featuring animated polar bears in the ads buckled under the strain. On the other hand, Kia’s site had the most reliable, fastest performance of all Super Bowl advertisers Sunday night, according to Yottaa, a website optimization firm.

Yottaa monitored all the Super Bowl advertisers’ sites Sunday and found those three sites were the only ones that crashed. Coke’s site was down long enough for the company to put up a maintenance page. ActofValor.com, meanwhile, experienced at least six outages of five minutes. That site was also five times slower than average during the big game.

Meanwhile, Acura’s homepage was working, but a call-to-action link wasn’t. “With an ad spend of $3.5 million plus production costs for 30 seconds of a commercial, leaving visitors with a bad experience is not the way to launch a new car,” Bob Buffone, Yottaa co-founder and CTO wrote on the company’s blog.

Overall traffic to Super Bowl advertisers’ websites fell 6%. Buffone notes that “Amazon reports that a 100 millisecond delay on its website equates to a 1% drop in revenue.”

However, Buffone admits his pre-game predictions “sucked.” Buffone noted that “Cars.com, TaxACT.com, GoDaddy.com and History.com all fared really well during the Super Bowl.”

BONUS: Watch Every Super Bowl XLVI Commercial

Phone Innovators: Official 2012 Best Buy Game Day Commercial

Watch as phone innovation meets phone-buying innovation, at Best Buy. Choose Phone Freedom and get any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans, with lots of unbiased advice. Reserve a $50 gift card at http://www.bestbuy.com/phonefreedom now for your next upgrade.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Acura, Coke, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads, Yottaa

The Nokia Lumia 800 is quite a capable device: It sports a 3.7-inch, curved-glass, AMOLED screen, a 1.4 GHz CPU, an 8-megapixel camera, 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of internal user memory. At its debut in October 2011, it was available in cyan, magenta and black.

The white version will be just the same as the other colors, specifications-wise. Nokia points out, however, that the white color isn’t just spray-on finish. “The unibody polycarbonate is dyed all the way through and milled like metal to give it the high-tech feel,” the company says.

The device should be available later in February, and it’s coming first to the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Switzerland, with other countries to follow.

It's Like the N9...But Not

The Lumia 800 is nearly identical in appearance to the N9, Nokia's first -- and last -- MeeGo handset.

Like the N9, it sports a beautiful polycarbonate body with a curved glass screen, a rear camera with LED flash and edges that feel great in the hand.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Nokia, Nokia Lumia 800, white Lumia 800

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Twitter reaction reached 12,233 tweets per second at the end of the Giants vs. Patriots game and 10,245 TPS during Madonna’s halftime performance Sunday night. Both numbers put the moments at numbers two and three on the list, just behind the online buzz sparked by Japanese anime movie Castle in the Sky in December (25,088 TPS).

The New York Giants narrowly defeated the New England Patriots — 21-17 — with the Giants taking the lead on an odd-looking touchdown with 57 seconds left. The Patriots never recovered. “In the final three minutes of the Super Bowl tonight, there were an average of 10,000 Tweets per second,” Twitter adds.

Madonna sparked an impressive amount of tweets during her halftime show, attracting an average of 8,000 TPS during a five-minute span. Guest performers include Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and Cee Lo Green. At one point, M.I.A. gave the camera the middle finger.

Twitter announced the record-book entries in a tweet. The two moments surpassed Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s 80-yard overtime touchdown pass from Jan. 8.

Top 15 Tweets-Per-Second Moments

• 1) Castle in the Sky airs (25,088 tweets per second on Dec. 9, 2011): Anime movie Castle in the Sky was televised in Japan.
• 2) End of Super Bowl XLVI (12,233 tweets per second on Feb. 5, 2012): See above.
• 3) Madonna’s Halftime Performance at Super Bowl XLVI (10,245 tweets per second on Feb. 5, 2012): See above.
• 4) Tim Tebow’s overtime touchdown pass (9,420 tweets per second on Jan. 8, 2012): During Sunday’s AFC wild-card playoff game, Tebow threw a touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in overtime to upset the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23.
• 5) MTV Video Music Awards (8,868 tweets per second on Aug. 28, 2011): “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me,” Beyonce said during her performance, confirming she and husband, Jay-Z, will have a baby. At the end of the song, she dropped her mic, unbuttoned her top and rubbed her baby bump.
• 6) Troy Davis executed (7,671 TPS on Sept. 20, 2011): Twitter caught fire in a last-minute effort to save convicted murderer Troy Davis from execution. Davis, who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer in Georgia, was put to death the next day.
• 7 and 8) FIFA Women’s World Cup (7,196 and 7,166 TPS on July 17, 2011): On this day, the World Cup set two new records for number of tweets sent per second: the end of the final match between the U.S. and Japan as well as the Paraguay vs. Brazil game. The records were later broken by the events listed above.
• 9) Steve Jobs resigns (7,064 TPS on Aug. 25, 2011): “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,” Steve Jobs wrote in a resignation letter. Apple tapped Tim Cook as the new CEO the same day.
• 10) New Year’s Day in Japan (6,939 TPS on Jan. 1, 2011): As the clock passed midnight on the first day of 2011, Twitter users in Japan turned to Twitter to wish the world a Happy New Year. Twitter use increased immensely across the globe as each time zone entered 2011. This map visualization that shows activity.
• 11) BET Awards (6,436 TPS on June 27, 2011): This year’s BET Awards featured heavy social media integration before and during the broadcast. But what set viewers off was the awkward series of events surrounding the Viewer’s Choice Award reveal. Because of technical difficulties, contest winner Tiffany Greene declared Chris Brown the winner but then said the award actually belonged to Rihanna.
• 12) UEFA Champions League (6,303 TPS on May 28, 2011): Barcelona defeated Manchester United, 3-1, in the final match.
• 13) Steve Jobs passes away (6,049 TPS on Oct. 6, 2011): Steve Jobs died Oct. 5 and many fans discussed his passing through tweets. The hashtag #RIPSteveJobs immediately became a trending topic. Since his passing, the world — including U.S. President Barack Obama, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg — has mourned his death and celebrated his achievements.
• 14) NBA Finals (5,531 TPS on June 13, 2011): Press conference comments along with a tweet from LeBron James after his team lost in the NBA Finals sparked a firestorm of responses via Twitter. His tweet said, “The Greater Man upstairs know when it’s my time. Right now isn’t the time.” Most replies were negative.
• 15) Japanese earthquake and tsunami (5,530 TPS on March 11, 2011): Twitter turned into an emergency go-to service for many following an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Japan’s coast. Tweet-o-Meter reported that 1,200 per minute were coming from Tokyo when the phone system’s went down.


More About: football, nfl, Social Media, sports, Super Bowl, trending, tweets per second, Twitter





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-tweets-per-second-records-game-madonna/feed/ 7 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-tweets-per-second-records-game-madonna/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/Wba9QmC8iu0/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/5-best-apps/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:09:00 +0000 Sarah Kessler http://mashable.com/?p=920931 With about 500,000 apps in the Apple App Store and an <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/21/android-apps-half-million/" target="_blank">estimated 300,000 apps</a> in the Android Market, finding the gems among the virtual haystack can be&#8230;

Everpix for iPhone










Everpix automatically stores and organizes all of your photos in one spot. As of Wednesday, it has an iPhone app that will automatically add your mobile photos to the same spot. In addition, the app gives you access to all of your photos on the go. Free.

Click here to view this gallery.

With about 500,000 apps in the Apple App Store and an estimated 300,000 apps in the Android Market, finding the gems among the virtual haystack can be full-time job. The good news is that it’s our full time job.

We’ve trekked through the overly frivolous, the ugly and the downright impractical in our search for these five recently launched apps worth downloading in the slideshow above.

We hope you enjoy this week’s top picks. They include new takes on mobile video, food searching and children’s books. There’s also an app that lets you access your entire photo library from your phone and another that will automatically tag your photos with the subjects’ names.

More About: apps, Everpix, Everything Butt Art, face.com, foodspotting, Klik, showyou

For more Mobile coverage:

• Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Mobile channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/5-best-apps/feed/ 1 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/5-best-apps/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/mXtquj4Tjm8/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:21:10 +0000 Stan Schroeder http://mashable.com/?p=922625 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?text=sdasdasd&#038;url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/"></a> <a href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/&#038;title=Torrent Search Engine BTJunkie Voluntarily Shuts Down&#038;related=true&#038;style=true"></a> <a target="_blank" type="box_count" name="fb_share" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/&#038;src=sp" style="text-decoration: none;"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/&#038;service=bit.ly&#038;source=mashable"></a>BitTorrent indexing engine BTJunkie has decided to shut its doors after 7 years of service. &#8220;This is the end of the line my friends. The&#8230;



BitTorrent indexing engine BTJunkie has decided to shut its doors after 7 years of service.

“This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best,” says a message posted on the front page of the site.

Founded in 2005, BTJunkie was one of the most popular torrent indexing engines on the web.

The decision to shut down the site comes shortly after founder and six employees of file hosting service Megaupload were arrested on charges of piracy and money laundering. If found guilty, the accused are looking at a maximum 20 years prison sentence.

In an interview with TorrentFreak, the site’s founder, who remains unnamed, said that recent legal action against Megaupload and other file-sharing services was one of the reasons behind the decision to shut down the site.

Nevertheless, he still sees a future for BitTorrent sites. “The war is far from over,” he said.

[via BTJunkie.org]

More About: bittorrent, BTJunkie, indexing engine, piracy, shut down, torrent, tracker

For more Tech coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/feed/ 8 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/btjunkie-shuts-down/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/tmqVeEWH_h8/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:37:10 +0000 Charlie White http://mashable.com/?p=922529 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?text=sdasdasd&#038;url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/"></a> <a href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/&#038;title=Mashable Weekend Recap: 28 Stories You May Have Missed&#038;related=true&#038;style=true"></a> <a target="_blank" type="box_count" name="fb_share" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/&#038;src=sp" style="text-decoration: none;"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/&#038;service=bit.ly&#038;source=mashable"></a>It was almost like a holiday weekend here at <em>Mashable</em>, but with the big Super Bowl game looming on Sunday, we weren&#8217;t just hanging around&#8230;



It was almost like a holiday weekend here at Mashable, but with the big Super Bowl game looming on Sunday, we weren’t just hanging around taking it easy. no sir/ma’am, we got even busier during the festivities.

During Super Bowl 2012, during which our HQ favorite New York Giants barely beat the New England Patriots, a few of us got together to do a live blog with Madison Avenue advertising experts, at the same time inviting our astute commenters to join us in a chatfest about those crazy Super Bowl advertisements that made the game even more enjoyable.

Meanwhile, we found a boatload of great stories from all over the world, including excellent pics from Pinterest, an unusual batch of Top 10 Tech, and we even celebrated Facebook’s eighth birthday. So join us for the Mashable Weekend Recap, where we’ll catch you up on all those exciting stories and much more.

News & Opinion Essentials

Samsung’s “Thing Called Love” Ad: The Anti-Apple?

Super Bowl XLVI: The Ads [LIVE BLOG]

15 of the Most Popular Pictures on Pinterest

Giants Website Prematurely Reveals Super Bowl Winner [PIC]

Where Are the Women on Facebook’s Board of Directors? [VIDEO]

Player Cut on Super Bowl 2012 Eve Will Tweet During Game

Digital Divide: If You’re Reading This, You’re One of the Lucky Ones [INFOGRAPHIC]

Will Windows Phone 8 Launch Microsoft Back In the Game?

2012 Grammys Embrace Digital, Mobile and Social Media

Super Bowl 2012 By the Numbers

Top 10 Tech This Week [PICS]

Facebook Turns 8, And Together We’ve Grown

New Study Claims iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps

Stylitics Is an Analytics Dashboard for Your Closet [INVITES]

Helpful Resources

How to Follow Super Bowl 2012 With Social Media

How to Recruit with Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Top 7 Comments on Mashable This Week

5 Ways Social Media Could Be Hurting Your Job Search

4 Tools for Better Agency-Client Collaboration

35 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Top 10 Google Chrome Plugins for Small Businesses

Super Bowl 2012: Everything You Need to Know About Watching It Online

Weekend Leisure

Turn Patriots Coach Bill Belichick into a Super Bowl Meme [CONTEST]

Super Bowl 2012: Tech Marches On [COMIC]

Top 6 Super Bowl 2012 Apps

29 Meme-Inspired Movie Posters [PICS]

Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week [PICS]

3 Free iPhone Apps for Creating Your Own Stop-Motion Videos

More About: Weekend recap





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/feed/ 0 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/weekend-recap-40/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/h4md0gtBh9g/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/ok-go-1000-instruments-video/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:12:53 +0000 Stan Schroeder http://mashable.com/?p=922579 The band <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/ok-go/">OK Go</a> is known for its imaginative and original videos, and its latest, for &#8220;Needing/Getting&#8221;, is no exception. This time the&#8230;

The band OK Go is known for its imaginative and original videos, and its latest, for “Needing/Getting”, is no exception.

This time the folks from OK Go played the instruments used in the song – with a car.

They outfitted a Chevy Sonic with retractable pneumatic arms, and then drove it around with the arms hitting more than 1,000 actual instruments posted on the side of the road in a desert near Los Angeles.

What makes the entire project really amazing (and a bit crazy) is the fact that the entire stunt was not only about the visual side of things: the instruments were actually producing sounds.

For example, “each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they’d play the right note no matter where they were struck,” says the band in the video description on YouTube.

The video took four months of preparation and four days of shooting and recording, and parts of the video were used in Chevrolet’s Chevy Sonic ad, which premiered during the Super Bowl Sunday.

Previous OK Go projects include an interactive HTML5 video, done in cooperation with Google, and a new version of the Muppet Show theme, filmed with characters from the show.

More About: Chevy Sonic, Music, OK Go, trending, Video

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/ok-go-1000-instruments-video/feed/ 11 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/ok-go-1000-instruments-video/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/wMZvmRhH24Q/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-2012-commercials/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:18:52 +0000 Zoe Fox http://mashable.com/?p=922561 There are two kinds of <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/super-bowl/">Super Bowl</a> fans: those who watch for the football and those who watch for the advertisements. For those who prefer the sport,&#8230;

Phone Innovators: Official 2012 Best Buy Game Day Commercial




Watch as phone innovation meets phone-buying innovation, at Best Buy. Choose Phone Freedom and get any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans, with lots of unbiased advice. Reserve a $50 gift card at http://www.bestbuy.com/phonefreedom now for your next upgrade.

Click here to view this gallery.

There are two kinds of Super Bowl fans: those who watch for the football and those who watch for the advertisements.

For those who prefer the sport, there were a bunch of great plays in Sunday’s game you may want to watch again online — Ahmad Bradshaw’s accidental touchdown comes to mind. For those who prefer the ads, we have just what you were looking for: All the ads from the 2012 game, together in one place.

Super Bowl commercials once were half-minute clips that only lived on after the game in conversation. Thanks to YouTube and the magic of video sharing, you can watch all the ads online as many times as you would like.

While many of this year’s ads were released before the event, the night still included many memorable spots. This year, 30-second spots sold for $3.5 million. That price point sounds expensive, but this is just about the only opportunity of year when viewers actually anticipate commercials. There are, of course, many of us who only watch the Super Bowl for the ads

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Most Shared Super Bowl Ads Of All Time

2012 saw some ads that will certainly be remembered for months to come: Volkswagon’s “The Dog Strikes Back,” M&M’s “Just My Shell,” H&M’s “David Beckham Bodywear,” Best Buy’s “Phone Invaders.” Lucky for you, you can have a second shot at watching the buzzed ads right here.

But more importantly, we want to hear from you. Which ads did you think were most successful this year? Which brands wasted their money on the year’s most expensive commercial slots? Share your analysis with us in the comments.

More About: Super Bowl, Super Bowl 2012, Super Bowl ads, trending, YouTube





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-2012-commercials/feed/ 41 http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-2012-commercials/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/ejOeEaw2DM0/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/best-iphone-armbands/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:48:03 +0000 Amy-Mae Elliott http://mashable.com/?p=914371 If you use your phone as an MP3 player during workouts, or don&#8217;t want to go running without it, an armband case is the ideal solution to give yo&#8230;

1. Sporteer Armband






"Designed by athletes for athletes," the Sporteer gets an integrated pocket for cash, cards and keys.

Cost: $24.99

Click here to view this gallery.

If you use your phone as an MP3 player during workouts, or don’t want to go running without it, an armband case is the ideal solution to give you a practical, handsfree way of keeping your handset close.

We have found 10 armband cases for the iPhone that offer great solutions for joggers and gymers. Whether you’re looking for an armband case with a hidden pocket, glow in the dark safety features or built-in cable management, you’ll find a case to suit you in our selection.

Take a look through the gallery. Let us know in the comments below about any other sporty iPhone case options you use and can recommend to the Mashable readership.

More About: apple, cases, features, iphone, iphone accessories, iphone cases, running, sports





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/best-iphone-armbands/feed/ 11 http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/best-iphone-armbands/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/JxH8GP4EiDs/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:11:48 +0000 Lauren Indvik http://mashable.com/?p=922477 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?text=sdasdasd&#038;url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/"></a> <a href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/&#038;title=How to Follow New York Fashion Week Online&#038;related=true&#038;style=true"></a> <a target="_blank" type="box_count" name="fb_share" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/&#038;src=sp" style="text-decoration: none;"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/&#038;service=bit.ly&#038;source=mashable"></a> Fashion Week returns to New York Feb. 9, and once again designers and the press are heading to the web to engage consumer audiences. Building&#8230;




Snapshot from Nanette Lepore’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection.


Fashion Week returns to New York Feb. 9, and once again designers and the press are heading to the web to engage consumer audiences.

Building off success from past seasons, many brands — roughly one-third showing at Lincoln Center — will live-stream the unveiling of their Fall 2012 collections on their websites and Facebook Pages, as well as video platforms such as YouTube and Livestream. Still more will be uploading backstage footage via their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram accounts.

Meanwhile, members of the fashion press will be churning out 140-character reviews and mobile snapshots live from the shows, while posting longer, slideshow-accompanied reviews on their respective news sites.

With so much to choose from, following Fashion Week online can feel nearly as overwhelming as attending in person — which is why we’ve gathered together the best resources for enjoying the festivities online and on your mobile phone. If there’s any we’ve missed, please let us know in the comments section below.

---

Live Video

---



YouTube has once again partnered with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and Maybelline to live-stream more than 25 shows at youtube.com/liverunway. (A mobile-optimized version is available at m.youtube.com/liverunway.) Several other brands are streaming shows via their websites, Facebook pages and apps. Full schedule below.

Nicholas K
Thursday, Feb. 9, 9 a.m. ET

BCBGMAXAZRIA
Thursday, Feb. 9, 10 a.m. ET

Richard Chai
Thursday, Feb. 9, 11 a.m. ET

Rebecca Taylor
Friday, Feb. 10, 2 p.m. ET

Rebecca Minkoff
Friday, Feb. 10, 3 p.m. ET

Tommy Hilfiger Men’s
Friday, Feb. 10, 5:30 p.m. ET

Charlotte Ronson
Friday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m. ET

Lacoste
Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 a.m. ET

Jill Stuart
Saturday, Feb. 11, 11 a.m. ET

Herve Léger by Max Azria
Saturday, Feb. 11, 3 p.m. ET

Tibi
Saturday, Feb. 11, 6 p.m. ET

Monique Lhuillier
Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. ET

Tracy Reese
Sunday, Feb. 12, 2 p.m. ET

Custo Barcelona
Sunday, Feb. 12, 4 p.m. ET

Diane von Furstenberg
Sunday, Feb. 12, 4 p.m. ET

Tommy Hilfiger Women’s
Sunday, Feb. 12, 8 p.m. ET

Carolina Herrera
Monday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. ET

Carlos Miele
Monday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m. ET

Bibhu Mohapatra
Monday, Feb. 13, 5 p.m. ET

Betsey Johnson
Monday, Feb. 13, 6 p.m. ET

Badgley Mischka
Tuesday, Feb.14, 10 a.m. ET

Vera Wang
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 11 a.m. ET

Dennis Basso
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 3 p.m. ET

Narciso Rodriguez
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m. ET

Michael Kors
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 10 a.m. ET

J. Mendel
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2 p.m. ET

Milly by Michelle Smith
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 3 p.m. ET

Anna Sui
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 6 p.m. ET

Vivienne Tam
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m. ET

---

Twitter

---



If you prefer live tweets to live video, we have a few favorites we recommend you follow. You can follow the full conversation by tracking the hashtags #nyfw and #mbfw.

@womensweardaily
Official Twitter account of fashion trade publication Women’s Wear Daily; tweets commentary and photos.

@EHolmesWSJ
Retail/fashion reporter for The Wall Street Journal, frequently posts mobile pics and news.

@evachen212
Teen Vogue‘s beauty director is the top source for backstage photos and makeup advice.

@CathyHorynNYT
New York Times critic, tweets colorful, descriptive commentary from the shows.

@nyfw
Guest moderators tweet from the Twitter’s official New York Fashion Week handle throughout the week.

@MBFashionWeek
IMG’s official account for New York Fashion Week.

@jimshi809
A live, photo-filled chronicle of runway shows and parties from freelance fashion journalist Jim Shi.

@CNFashion
Retweets from Conde Nast fashion and beauty editors at the shows.

@elvainadine
WSJ multimedia producer and reporter, posts high-quality photos straight from the runway.

@cutblog
Updates (including plenty of gossip) from New York magazine’s fashion blog.

---

Fashion News Sites

---



For those of you who prefer more editorially heavy coverage, here our top five picks for fashion news and imagery throughout the week.

Style.com

Some of the most intelligent collection reviews during Fashion Week, accompanied by comprehensive slideshows and videos from the runway. If you’re more interested in behind-the-scenes stories, see Style.com’s People + Parties section.

Heard on the Runway

Blog-style coverage and slideshows from The Wall Street Journal.

On the Runway

The New York Times‘ style blog contains short updates from on and around the runway, often accompanied by slideshows.

Vogue.com

A more edited approach to the designs, trends and parties emerging during Fashion Week.

Women’s Wear Daily

Reviews and highlights from the collections, portions of which are available outside the paywall.

---

Tumblr

---



For the third season running, Tumblr is sending a group of bloggers — just six this time — to chronicle the shows. An internal staff of editors will also be curating posts to display at tumblr.com/nyfw.

Alongside Tumblr’s chosen six, we’d also like to put these Tumblrs on your radar during Fashion Week:

WWD
Consistently one of the first to upload runway footage to Tumblr, plus a hearty dose of backstage and celebrity/front row footage.

From Me To You
Some of the most beautiful — and occasionally animated — behind-the-scenes footage from duo Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.

Teen Vogue
Timely runway footage, plus shots from the scene in and around Lincoln Center.

Eva Chen
Teen Vogue‘s beauty director posts her daily outfits, backstage shots and loads of beauty advice from top stylists throughout NYFW.

dknyprgirl
If you don’t have the pleasure of sorting through thousands of show invite requests each season, you can live vicariously through the updates from DKNY’s online personality, “dknyprgirl.” In addition to humorously inappropriate requests and other behind-the-scenes anecdotes, you can hope to get a few sneak peeks of show preparations, too.

---

Instagram

---



Given the enthusiasm with which Fashion Week reporters and attendees have embraced photo-sharing app Instagram, we decided to include a list of some of our favorites for a visual report of the week. To locate them, open up Instagram and search for their usernames under Profile > Search Instagram > Users and usernames.

evachen212
Eva Chen cross-posts most of her Instagram snapshots to Tumblr and Twitter, but if you’re keen to get backstage snapshots of makeup artists in action directly in your Instagram feed, you can follow her there too.

oscarprgirl
Watch Oscar de la Renta and his team put the finishing touches on the Fall 2012 collection from Director of Communications Erika Bearman. As a bonus, you’ll get to see what the elegant Bearman wears to work all week.

simonesoliver
Expect a fair number of street photographs from Simone Oliver, online fashion editor at The New York Times.

katespadeny
Peek into preparations for Kate Spade New York’s Fall 2012 fashion presentation.

More About: fashion, nyfw

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/feed/ 4 http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/new-york-fashion-week-fall-2012-online/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/y7N9k6ir3Vc/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/samsung-next-big-thing/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:35:04 +0000 Zoe Fox http://mashable.com/?p=922525 <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/samsung/">Samsung</a> has made one thing clear in its "Next Big Thing" Super Bowl spot -- it wants to be the anti-<a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/samsung/">Apple</a>...

Samsung has made one thing clear in its “Next Big Thing” Super Bowl spot — it wants to be the anti-Apple.

The South Korean electronics maker is marketing it’s 5.3-inch smartphone with stylus as the latest player in the world of connected devices.

The ad — as we already new from its teaser released last week — pokes fun at Apple fanboys and fangirls who notoriously camp out in anticipation for iDevice launches.

The towns of San Francisco, Calif, Boston, Ma. and Denver, Co., erupt in non-choreographed flash mobs, when they meet “The Thing Called Love,” the Samsung Galaxy Note.

The phone, which some Mashable editors got their hands on at CES, feels too big to be a phone, measuring over half the length of the iPad.

The Galaxy Note did not have a lot of tech company during the 2012 Super Bowl, as the majority of the ads were, as usual, for beer and cars. Perhaps Samsung will gain something as one of the limited technology advertisers during the game.

Would you want a stylus for your smartphone? Do you think a 5.3-inch screen is too big? Let us know what you think of Samsung’s Super Bowl spot.

---

The Most-Shared Super Bowl Ads Before the Game


---




1. "The Bark Side" (Vokswagen)




Not surprisingly, the sequel to the most-shared ad of last year's Super Bowl, and of all of 2011 for that matter, is leading the pack this year. Volkswagen released this video last week showing dogs barking to the tune of Star Wars's "The Imperial March." So does that mean there will be dogs in this year's ad? More Star Wars? We'll know soon enough.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: apple, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note, Super Bowl





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/samsung-next-big-thing/feed/ 31 http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/samsung-next-big-thing/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/wpo2eVuP4tE/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/facebook-recruiting-infographic/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:16:26 +0000 Lauren Hockenson http://mashable.com/?p=917569 So you&#8217;ve got a great job that&#8217;s waiting to be filled at your company, and you decide you want to tap into the <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/08/28/social-media-recruiting-infographic/">already measured</a> power of s&#8230; So you’ve got a great job that’s waiting to be filled at your company, and you decide you want to tap into the already measured power of social media recruiting. You start to wrestle with the big kahuna, LinkedIn, and you’re also covering niche social media sites for your industry. But you may be ignoring an intensely powerful tool hiding right under your nose — Facebook. The social media mega-site has proven successful for snapping up young professionals, but it can be a great resource for finding talent at any level.

According to this infographic by HireRabbit, 48% of all job seekers (and 63% of those with a profile) did social media job hunting on Facebook in the past year. That’s a lot of eyes searching for opportunities, and if your brand is already active on the network, it could be worth engaging power users to recommend applicable candidates.

Take a look at the infographic below to learn more about recruiting on Facebook. Do you have a social media recruiting success story? Is it as effective as traditional recruiting? Let us know in the comments.






---

Social Media Job Listings

---

Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

• VP/Group Director, Strategy/Digital Analytics at Digitas in New York City
• Social Media Associate at Creative Marketing Partners in Miami
• Production Designer at Glam Media, Inc. in San Francisco

More About: Facebook Jobs, hiring, job recruiting, job search series, jobs, online recruiting





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/facebook-recruiting-infographic/feed/ 22 http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/facebook-recruiting-infographic/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/_IQUFm8-6_0/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:24:08 +0000 Todd Wasserman http://mashable.com/?p=922439 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?text=sdasdasd&#038;url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/"></a> <a href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/&#038;title=Super Bowl XLVI: The Ads [LIVE BLOG]&#038;related=true&#038;style=true"></a> <a target="_blank" type="box_count" name="fb_share" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/&#038;src=sp" style="text-decoration: none;"></a> <a target="_blank" href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/&#038;service=bit.ly&#038;source=mashable"></a>Some will go home heroes, some will fail miserably. Reputations will be built and destroyed tonight. No, we&#8217;re not talking about the guys&#8230;



Some will go home heroes, some will fail miserably. Reputations will be built and destroyed tonight.

No, we’re not talking about the guys on the New York Giants and New England Patriots, we’re talking about the people behind the ads that are running during the big game.

For the second year in a row, Mashable is live blogging the Super Bowl. Once again, we’re only mildly interested in what’s going on on the field. But we’re very focused on the ads.

I am Todd Wasserman, Mashable‘s business editor. Joining me this year will be some Madison Avenue bigshots, including Euro RSCG Chairman Lee Garfinkel, Kaplan Thaler Managing Director of Digital Strategy and CRM Danny Flamberg, 360i Vice President, Emerging Media David Berkowitz, Gyro Executive Creative Director Mike Tittel and Landor Associates chief marketing officer Hayes Roth. In addition, Vice President of Marketing at Bluefin Labs Tom Thai and his colleague, Associate Marketing Manager Eleanor Dowling will be providing some real-time social media stats and Mashable‘s own Charlie White and Sam Laird will be on hand to offer some color commentary.

Join us at 6:30 p.m. EST. We’ll cover all the ads, from kickoff to the final second.

---

The Most-Shared Super Bowl Ads Before the Game


---




1. "The Bark Side" (Vokswagen)




Not surprisingly, the sequel to the most-shared ad of last year's Super Bowl, and of all of 2011 for that matter, is leading the pack this year. Volkswagen released this video last week showing dogs barking to the tune of Star Wars's "The Imperial March." So does that mean there will be dogs in this year's ad? More Star Wars? We'll know soon enough.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Advertising, liveblog, Marketing, Media, Super Bowl, trending





]]> http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/feed/ 19 http://mashable.com/2012/02/05/super-bowl-xlvi-the-ads-live-blog/