Water Cooler

SuperGlued: The Can't-Miss Live Music iPhone App for SXSW 2010 —

If you've ever done SXSW before, then you know about the music here in Austin. If you haven't, let us tell you now - there's a lot. But how do you find it all? And how do you find out which show is best? And how do you share blogs, photos, videos and tweet about it all at once?

SuperGlued, which has integrated with both Foursquare and Twitter, will be your your one-stop shop for the more than 1,200 bands that are set to invade Austin over the next week and a half.

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SuperGlued is a can't-miss app for navigating SXSW without having the schizophrenically switch between iPhone apps just to keep up. With the release of a new version of its iPhone app, users can find shows, buy tickets, tweet and read what others are tweeting, post photos and check-in to Foursquare. And if you find yourself at a lame show, the new "Where My Friends At" feature will let you know what shows your friends are seeing so you can ask them if it's any better.

A new partnership with BandsInTown not only helps the service find all the shows going on, but lets you buy tickets from your iPhone. And for special events, like SXSW, Superglued brings all the shows together into a separate event listing.

Aside from the iPhone app, the website lets you continue to interact around the shows you've seen long after they've ended. Rush Doshi, who co-founded SuperGlued with Gawker CTO Tom Plunkett, told us on the phone the other day that SuperGlued is the water cooler for everyone to gather around and talk about that crazy show they saw last week.

"The idea came about from going to a lot of shows and wondering about who else was there - it just seemed that there was no one place to go to see what everyone else thought," said Doshi. "We built SuperGlued to be that place."

SuperGlued connects with Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr, so when the shows all over, you can both add and check out block posts, videos, set lists and more from the website.

Doshi told us that they have made extra efforts to make sure that all of the SXSW shows are list, but if a show isn't there, users can add shows via the website. With the number of shows springing up in parking lots and backyards, this is a must-have feature. In the near future, the company is looking to include show-specific merchandise in its iPhone app, letting you browse and even order show merchandise from your phone and having it shipped to your house.

Beyond SXSW, SuperGlued is available around the world with nearly 200,000 show listings, many of which it pulls from BandInTown and Last.fm, in 140 countries. So, wherever you are, get off your duff, download the iPhone app and go see some live music.

Discuss

Susan Wilson Solovic: Employees Talk. Customers Listen: You May Not Like What They Hear —

One of the biggest assets a business can have is talented, loyal employees who understand the importance of customer service. I beam with pride when someone compliments one of my team members at SBTV.com. It confirms what I already know: I'm fortunate to have the best and the brightest working with me.

As business owners, we place trust in our employees that they will represent the company well in all public interactions. But have you ever thought about what could happen when a customer overhears your employees talking to each other. Do you know what they are saying? Your customers do, and they are listening.

Customers don't want to get caught in the fray of employee problems. It makes them uncomfortable and it creates a bad impression for your company. Your employees should understand that conversations about company-related issues and concerns are only to be conducted well out of earshot of your customers.

Regardless of what type of business you are in, there are opportunities for employee conversations to be overheard. Imagine a water-cooler conversation between employees complaining about your business that's picked up by a customer sitting in a conference room. There are countless times when I've seen employees huddled in retail stores discussing things I shouldn't hear while I'm browsing through the store.

Let me share a couple of recent examples.

Last week I was flying on a major airline when I had the unpleasant experience of listening to the flight attendant and the gate agent threatening to write-up the other. Because it was an airline I fly frequently for business, I was upgraded and seated in a first class, aisle, bulk head seat. Suffice it to say, I had a ring side seat to this altercation. Once the gate agent left, the flight attendant didn't stop. She decided to recruit the other flight attendants on board to support her position. So they congregated in the galley complaining to each other. What impression did it leave with me? It reconfirmed that many of the airline employees are so disgruntled that they have lost interest in the people who are responsible for their paychecks -- their passengers.

Another example. Arriving late to a hotel because of a canceled flight, I decided to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant before calling it a night. When I'm by myself, I usually sit at the bar because typically bartenders are good conversationalists and I don't feel so alone. That night the manager was short staffed so he was working the bar. (I know that fact because he complained to me the minute I sat down.) The entire time I was eating my dinner, he yelled at and criticized his staff as they passed by. Let me just say, I wasn't able to relax and enjoy my dinner, and it will be the last time I stay at that hotel.

I'm confident you wouldn't want one of your customers to experience anything like the situations I've described above. So make sure when your employees talk, customers hear the appropriate things.

Social Discovery – What I Love about @plancast —

iPad Maker, Foxconn, Denies Delay Rumors (Big Surprise) — There's been some unfounded rumors swirling around the Internet water cooler the last few days that Apple's initial shipment of iPads will only be around 300,000. That's far less than the expected numbers of 300,000-400,000, which would no doubt cause fanboy riots and shenanigans at Apple Stores nationwide. John called BS on these rumors a few days back and now Foxconn's suppliers has done the same.

iPad maker, Foxconn, denies delay rumors (big surprise) —

There’s been some unfounded rumors swirling around the Internet water cooler the last few days that Apple’s initial shipment of iPads will only be around 300,000. That’s far less than the expected numbers of 300,000-400,000, which would no doubt cause fanboy riots and shenanigans at Apple Stores nationwide. John called BS on these rumors a few days back and now Foxconn’s suppliers has done the same.

These companies see no reason why Foxconn will not be able to make the expected numbers and should even hit the 1,000,000 mark in April. Of course Foxconn didn’t comment on the rumors or this latest report so we really don’t know anything more. The joys of the Internet, eh? [image via mulaz.org]

Crazy Impressive Rube Goldberg Music Video — This is the music video for Chicago-based OK Go's 'This Too Shall Pass', which consists of an unbelievable 3:53 long Rube Goldberg machine. You have to watch it. I mean, you don't haaave to, you'll just miss out if you don't. Then, at the water cooler tomorrow when we're all talking about the awesome music video we saw you'll just stand there looking stupid with your hands in your pockets. You'll make a comment about a Lady Gaga video. We will point and laugh. You will cry. We won't feel bad. Hit the jump for four making-of videos. OK Go's (Embeddable!) Music Video For 'This Too Shall Pass' Features Insane Rube Goldberg Machine Sequence [gizmodo] via Astonishing Rube Goldberg music video by OK Go [dvice] Thanks to uglybuckling, who knows if you can't make a good song, at least make a hell of a music video.

Facebook users prefer Fox News to Google News —

A report published Monday by Internet analytics firm Hitwise says that Facebook users are clicking over to mainstream broadcast media sites far more than they do to Internet-only news and media brands.

Top clickthrough? The Weather Channel’s US site. Hitwise says traffic from Facebook to broadcast media sites has more than doubled since a year ago.

In fact, link clicks from Facebook to Fox News — which added former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin as a commentator in January — outnumbered those to Google News. One obvious explanation is that the Fox links go to specific pages, rather than to a search results page on Google.

Hitwise analyst Heather Hopkins offered this insight into the numbers, but no clear takeaway:

Do Facebook users prefer Broadcast Media? I ran a correlation analysis to try to figure out if the amount of traffic Facebook sends a site is related to the number of fans a brand has on its Facebook page. I found no such correlation. (For the analysis, I used downstream visits from Facebook to 23 top News and Media websites excluding news aggregators and compared this to the number of fans on the associated Facebook page.)

A colleague pointed me to an article in the New York Times suggesting that social networks are creating a water cooler effect and actually boosting viewership of broadcast media. Is Facebook the new water cooler and if so, how can print media capitalize on this trend?

Companies: Fox News, Google, hitwise

ShopTalk: Real-time Team Chats —

For many teams whose members are spread out across different locations, one of the biggest difficulties is finding a way to keep everyone in the loop. There’s no chatting around the water cooler, no way to stick your head into the office across the hall. ShopTalk is seeking to solve that problem using informal online chat rooms. The idea is that you can easily sit in on multiple chat rooms at once, while still getting your work done — not really an option with many current communications applications that mainly focus on offering solutions for meetings.

When you create a ShopTalk account, you’ll either join your organization’s existing chat rooms or need to add your organization at the same time. The system is built around interactions between team members. Interestingly, where many applications geared towards internal communication ask you to invite your teammates right off the bat, ShopTalk is a little more specific. As you’re setting up your account, you’re asked to invite three people: your most helpful colleague, your most experienced colleague and your most knowledgeable colleague. Even after you’ve completed signing up, adding another colleague is just a matter of typing in their email address.

You start out with a chat room titled “Banter,” and have the ability to add new chat rooms immediately. You can also share files across ShopTalk — the application offers an upload tool, which sends a link to your files in the chat room as well as thumbnails for image files. ShopTalk also allows you to look back on past chats. They aren’t exactly archived, though, and I’d love to see a search tool in the future.

ShopTalk organizes chat rooms as a set of tabs within one screen. There are visual alerts (in the form of highlighted tabs) to attract your attention whenever there’s activity in a chat room, but they’re not so intrusive that they’ll distract you from something else on your monitor. When you receive a direct message through ShopTalk’s system, you also get an audible alert so that you know when someone is contacting you directly. In a sense, most of the chat rooms function like a virtual office water cooler: you can pay as much or as little attention as you like, although if something really interesting is going on, you can tell. The direct messaging tool replaces the need to stick your head into a colleague’s office. It does feel more informal than meeting applications, which may prove to be a key selling point. It’s also easy to leave it running in a window while you get other things done.

Currently, ShopTalk is in beta and is free to use. During the beta period, you can add as many team members as you’d like. It is entirely web-based, which can be beneficial if you only need people to join certain discussions every so often. The interface is easy to use, with features like auto complete when you’re sending messages. ShopTalk is a product of Boomplex, a team of software developers who created the application so that they could discuss ideas easily.

Have you used ShopTalk or a similar app to provide a virtual office water cooler?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.):

Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

The iPad’s Little (Public) Secret —

The iPad is what Steve Jobs claims as his most important project ever. Love it or hate it, it is going to change the way people think about tablet computing, third screens, and larger touch screen displays.

The device has galvanized the world of technology with people massing in camps both for and against the device. The most often voiced complaints (as you know) are the lack of ability to run multiple apps at a time, the lack of Flash inclusion, and no forward facing camera.

On the other hand the device is being praised for wonderful design, a delightful touchscreen, and innovative pay as you go 3G access. The device has somehow managed to surpass its pre-release buzz with post-release arguing around the blogosphere and water cooler. Will you buy one? If so why, or if not why not? We have all been asked this a dozen times at least.

Given that the device has yet to actually become available for sale (the name is in contention with another company claiming the right to the trademark), few people are looking into the future of the device. It would be wise to do so; this is an Apple product, so we need to make special considerations.

Buying First Generation Apple Products Is Risky

Apple builds wonderful hardware, but often they wait to make it truly special until the second generation. We all have an Apple upgrade story. Mine? Buying a damn expensive iPod Photo a week before the iPod Video came out.

What does this mean? If you have more than two beefs with the iPad the best thing to do is to wait for the second generation. The device will have a lower price tag next year and more features. Given the verifiably raucous whining surrounding the device (something that I have partaking in), Apple is sure to add in most of what we are demanding.

It’s The App Store All Over Again

If you recall, when the iPhone first came out, there was no App store. Hell, there wasn’t even a SDK to work with. However, we all threw screaming tantrums, and sure enough it came out.

For an even better example look to the exclusion of 3G from the iPhone. Half the tech world scrambled to buy first generation iPhones that had only EDGE connectivity. Wait one year, the device was upgraded with 3G connectivity for the same price (more or less).

Moral? Wait. Apple will most likely give you what you want in the next product cycle, so don’t force yourself to buy two devices.

It’s Almost Like They Do It On Purpose

Given Apple’s history in the area, it almost (just almost) feels like the released 20% defeatured products for their most die-hard fans to buy, thus allowing them to release a full feature product the next year, claim it to be revolutionary, and get everyone to upgrade. Brilliant? Yes. Good for your wallet? Hardly.

What does all this mean? I would suggest waiting for the next generation. It will only mean that you get a better gadget. You lived without it for your whole life, you can surely wait one more year.

Social Media Customer Leaders: Some Early Performance Data —

You're grabbing a coffee in the break room when your boss's boss walks in. You're surprised that she seems to recognize you. Did you make an impression in your short presentation last month? You exchange a few snarky water cooler comments about last night's performances on American Idol, and then she hits you with the zinger: "Times are tough for us right now. What have you been doing lately to boost our performance?"

You could say, "Well, I've been tweeting a lot," but would you feel confident saying that? Perhaps you should. We found that tweeting is both common and encouraged among a select group of companies we call Social Media Customer Leaders, or SMC Leaders for short. We identified these companies in our new Babson Executive Education survey of over 900 global executives, managers, and individual contributors. (Special thanks to colleagues Elaine Eisenman and PJ Guinan for their ongoing input to this research.)

SMC Leaders are the companies where employees "strongly agree" with the survey statement: "our organization has embraced social media (like Twitter, blogs, and Facebook) to improve its responsiveness to customer needs." At the other end of the spectrum are SMC Laggards, who strongly disagree with that same statement.

Some noteworthy performance results when comparing SMC Leaders to Laggards:

Only 21 percent of SMC Leader companies have flat or declining sales over the past year compared to 31 percent of SMC Laggard companies. Many respondents did point out in a comments box section of our survey that social media is not a singular reason for strong performance, but one piece in the tapestry of reasons. "We try different angles of marketing to appeal to a broader range of customers," said one respondent from an SMC Leader, "and it seems to be working as our sales are improving while those of our competitors languish."

Leaders also say they are putting more sweat equity into retaining customers, and social media is one way to keep in touch with clients: "In these uncertain times our company has invested more in client relationships and building stronger client teams," noted one respondent.

While just five percent of SMC Leader companies had higher than 25 percent growth over the last year, that's two-and-a-half times more than the 2 percent of SMC Laggards that could say they grew that much. For some SMC Leaders, social media is a core growth strategy, or it is closely tied to new potential sources of revenue. For example, one respondent from an SMC Leader told us that his company is "extremely proactive in [linking] new products to...Twitter and Facebook."

But more often social media is just one of many tactics companies use to grow sales under a broader strategy. For example, several respondents noted that their organizations' main growth engine is globalization. One firm has decided to shift its client acquisition and retention resources away from the US toward Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

These companies are using social media as part of that bigger global strategy. Twitter, Facebook and blogs extend global reach, but also function as a way to carry on conversations with local customers. Summarizing her company's globalization strategy, a respondent from a SMC Leader says: "Each country's [marketing group] must be effective in detecting what its customers need." And the direct contact with customers afforded by social media is a useful tool for this detection.

Two-thirds of respondents from SMC Leader companies strongly agree with the statement, "We are more effective meeting customer needs today compared to 18 months ago" when the recession began. That's three-times the rate of SMC Laggard companies.
An obvious reason for this is the communication and dialogue with customers that social media facilitates. Less obvious, perhaps, is the financial benefit: since they're often cheap to use, social media allow some SMC Leaders to solve the contradictory need to drive down their costs while increasing their interaction with customers. As one respondent states, "We have taken advantage of the recession to focus on lowering costs while keeping our quality high [in customer service]. A lean operating cost structure is a competitive strength."

Inexpensive and efficient, social media can give customers more extensive explanations of their offerings than traditional marketing and advertising can. SMC Leaders that offer complex product lines or pricing models can use social media to clear the fog for customers and can thus speed up purchase and delivery. SMC Laggards obviously lack this channel of communication to provide clarification for their customers. Laggards' bewildered customers may have to struggle to piece together information like it's an episode of "Lost." Even if laggard customers are not more demanding, one respondent admitted, "they are more confused."

Correlation isn't causality, of course. Aggressive adoption of social media can be a signal that an organization is more dynamic and innovative in the first place. For instance, SMC Leaders are two-and-a-half times more likely to strongly agree with the statement, "My company puts more emphasis on innovation and growth today than before the recession" (43% vs. 17%).

As we suggest in the title, we are still in the early stages of looking through our survey data. Of interest next is the performance of the 38 percent of SMC Leaders (compared to 2 percent of Laggards) that also use social media internally for CEO-employee and employee-employee interaction, such as strategy communication and knowledge sharing.

Have you ever wondered whether your boss's boss recognizes you from your company's internal Facebook account?

H. James Wilson is a Senior Researcher and Senior Writer at Babson Executive Education (BEE) in Wellesley, MA. At BEE he is a contributor to an ongoing Social Media research study led by Dr. PJ Guinan. Wilson has written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, and HBR Online where "Innovation Teams Lack Data, Structure" appears.

Vid-Biz: YouTube, ZillionTV, Brightcove —

YouTube to Kill IE6 Support on March 13; Google has given a specific kill date for old browser support, meaning that some future features on YouTube won’t work in older browsers. (Ars Technica)

Qwest Plows Millions Into ZillionTV; telco has invested $10 million in startup ZillionTV in return for exclusive rights to offer the IP-delivered video-on-demand service in the telco’s footprint. (Multichannel News)

Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV’s Friend; Blogs and social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV. (NY Times)

WGAW Signs 33rd Online Content Company; Emmy-nominated production company Big Fantastic (Prom Queen, Sorority Forever) has signed on as a signatory to the Writer’s Guild of America, West. (press release)

The TV Numbers Game; Vizio is now the best-selling LCD brand in the United States, but Samsung sells more LCD and plasma sets together than anyone else. (NY Times)

Brightcove Announces Major Customer Wins & Partnerships in Spain; the online video platform signed major new Spanish customers Tuenti, Grupo Vocento, Sony Music Spain, Conde Nast Digital Spain, Grupo V, GEC, GX Magazine and TQMadrid. (press release)

The Internet Will Save TV: Social TV —

Instead of stealing viewers away, the social web is augmenting the experience of TV watching and making it much more social, leading to an uptick in viewing:

- Brian Stelter, Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV’s Friend

Many television executives are crediting the Internet, in part, for the revival.

Blogs and social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV.

The Nielsen Company, which measures television viewership and Web traffic, noticed this month that one in seven people who were watching the Super Bowl and the Olympics opening ceremony were surfing the Web at the same time. [emphasis mine.]

“The Internet is our friend, not our enemy,” said Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS Corporation, which broadcast both the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards this year. “People want to be attached to each other.”

Seeking to capitalize on the online water-cooler effect, NBC showed the Golden Globes live on both coasts for the first time this year, and the network reportedly wants to do the same for the Emmy Awards this fall, so the entire country can watch (and chat online) simultaneously.

[...]

Media companies are starting to consider how to incorporate that water-cooler effect — and how to harness it for day-to-day TV shows, too. For the Olympics, NBC is promoting something called “You Be the Judge,” which lets viewers submit their own scores for figure skaters through a Web application and compare their scores to other viewers. The network’s Web site also features a gadget that tracks Twitter opinions about the Games.

Chloe Sladden, director of media partnerships for Twitter, said sites like Twitter let people feel plugged in to a real-time conversation.

“In the future, I can’t imagine a major event where the audience doesn’t become part of the story itself,” Ms. Sladden said.

Soon we will be seeing more TV where the premise of sociality is built-in to the experience: where it is expected that you will be online in parallel with watching a show. Social TV is here, and just in time to save TV.

I am looking forward to a more socilaized version of reading the paper, too.

The Internet is not Here to Kill TV, the Internet is TV's Friend [Best Friends] —

The winter olympics, Grammys and Superbowl set viewing records this month — and many TV execs are giving credit to the internet. Which, according to the New York Times, enables "an online water-cooler conversation."

One in seven people watching the opening ceremony in Vancouver, or the Saints take on the Colts, were also on the internet, according to Nielsen. "The Internet is our friend, not our enemy," Les Moonves, CEO of CBS told Brian Stelter of the Times. "People want to be attached to each other."

Who knew people liked to interact?

Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV’s Friend — Web sites like Facebook and Twitter allow people to split time between computers and TVs as they watch events.

Give your lock screen some life with Office Hot Shot —

Different themes have different lock screens, and some are more interesting than others. For the most part, though, they all contain the same basic information: date and time, message count, signal strength, battery life, and owner name. For some that’s enough. The lock screen, after all, isn’t something you look at very often — if you’re looking at your Berry chances are you’ve unlocked it. If you often pull your Berry out of your pocket, though — perhaps to check the time, perhaps to check for new messages — you might get sick of seeing the same old thing. In that case, you might want to check out Office Hot Shot, an app that gives some life, and some fun, to your lock screen.

The app is definitely filed under the novelty section, and I don’t expect people to use it longer than a couple of weeks, but it looks like it could provide entertainment in that time.

Functionally, Office Hot Shot allows you to automatically lock your BlackBerry under certain conditions. For instance, when your phone connects on a call (good for touchscreen users), when the phone disconnects, when you’re charging, when the backlight dims, etc. The app then displays plenty of relevant information, including the full date, clock, unread message count, battery level, and water cooler. One aspect I don’t see on other lock screens: missed call count. On many themes, at least the ones I’ve used, I don’t get that separately from my messages. You can even set a password to unlock, complete with reminder.

Visually, the lock screen displays your battery level in the water cooler and your signal level in the plant. You can hit B or S to display them in more recognizable form. Finally, the lock screen includes a game where you toss crumpled paper into the garbage, adjusting for wind speed and direction. That can kill a few minutes I’m sure.

If you’re bored, you can get Office Hot Shot for $2.99. It works on BlackBerry models with OS 4.6 or above, though it seems like a better bet for the Storm series.

Hat tip: BlackBerry Cool.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Give your lock screen some life with Office Hot Shot

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Give your lock screen some life with Office Hot Shot

Food allergies? Beware water coolers —

Tiger Woods To Apologize On Friday And Thus End Any Further Talk About Tiger Woods —

Attention anyone out there with any lingering thoughts about the Tiger Woods cheating scandal: Get it all out of your system now. This Friday, it seems the story that has warmed our collective hearts and gently rocked us to sleep each night since November will finally come to a close. Tiger is going to apologize publicly, and then the story will be done once and for all. The NY Post reports:

Tiger Woods will apologize for his past behavior and discuss his future at a meeting in Florida on Friday, according to a statement released Wednesday by Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg and his spokesman Glenn Greenspan.

Woods will make the apology at an 11 a.m. press conference at PGA Tour Headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. It will be the first time the golfer has spoken publicly since his Nov. 27 car crash.

Fox Business Network reported Wednesday that Tiger plans to return to golf “within days.”

Look, we all knew it would have to end sooner or later. All the great scandals do. Together we have to accept Tiger’s decision to put this part of his career behind him. You can’t live your whole life on just one huge, mind blowing sex scandal. This man is an artist, and I’m sure when the time is right, he will bestow upon a grateful nation another great source of water cooler small talk, crass comments from drunk relatives during the holidays, hilarious email forwards, and weeks upon weeks of tabloid covers.

Feel free to leave your scandal eulogies in the comments before Friday’s big apology, and try not to get too emotional for Tiger. Remember that maybe, just maybe, it may turn out this guy is pretty good at golf or something.

2 Approaches to Social Media Security —

Image by Mixy Lorenzo

When it comes to social media, IT security groups have two concerns (and rightly so):

1. People disclosing confidential information.
2. People inadvertently downloading viruses (you see this a lot with shortened links on Twitter).

Organizations can handle this issue one of two ways:

1. Block all social media sites.
2. Educate and coach employees on what’s ok to share and how to your computers safe when using this new technology. If you’re like Zappos, you can take it a step further and teach employees how to use these sites to learn, grow and develop

Which of these would you choose, and why?

PS: Organizations are actually worried about a third thing when it comes to social media – people wasting time. Guess what? The people who are going to fritter away hours on Facebook would have spent that time gabbing away at the water cooler – not filling out your TPS reports.

Why deprive everyone else of a great tool for sharing knowledge, learning and developing professionally?

Facebook This | http://renegadehr.net/2-approaches-to-social-media-security/ via @ChrisFerdinandi">Tweet This | Email This

2 Approaches to Social Media Security was written by Chris Ferdinandi for RenegadeHR.net, and was originally published on February 17, 2010.

© Chris Ferdinandi | Content licensed under Creative Commons

Volvo unveils touchscreen rear entertainment with 500GB and WiFi —

Filed under: Chicago Auto Show, Technology, Volvo

In-car entertainment turned it up another wireless notch at last week's Chicago Auto Show when Volvo showed off "the industry's first Internet connected Rear Seat Entertainment System with Windows XP, WiFi and a 500G hard drive."

Officially, it remains a test-bed study for the moment, but the idea is that you can do everything on a rear headrest touchscreen that you can do on your home computer. You can also plug your computer into the car and load the XC70's system with your own music and video to keep things quiet in the back row. While it's officially only in the 'conceptual phase,' we have it on very good authority that the system will be available in 2011 Volvo XC60 and XC70 models beginning this summer.

Follow the jump for Volvo's take on the RSEi-500 setup, and be sure to get ready for Geneva, where Volvo will reveal an XC90 with a crappy rolling chair, a cubicle and a water cooler.

[Source: Volvo]

Continue reading Volvo unveils touchscreen rear entertainment with 500GB and WiFi

Volvo unveils touchscreen rear entertainment with 500GB and WiFi originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Stackable Water Bottle —

This is one of those designs that’s so incredibly brilliant it makes you feel like a moron.  Honestly, how is it that no one thought of this before?!  Especially companies that have to deal with these bottles on a regular basis.  It’s one thing for an average person to overlook this idea, but it’s surprising that no water cooler companies have come up with this.

The Stackable Bottle would make it possible to stack several bottles on top of each other and save a whole lot of space.  Instead of having to use extra materials to make them stack, everything you’d need would already be built into the bottle.  Plus for those using these at home or in the office, once these are in the water cooler you could use the bottom as a cute vase.  This was designed by Yujin Kim, who hopefully will get companies to switch to this design soon.

Source: OhGizmo

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Cool Gift Idea: Digital Picture Frames, check out our reviews.
[ The Stackable Water Bottle copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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Samantha Daniels: How to Pick The Proper Valentine's Day Gift —

Do you ever feel stumped when it comes to celebrating Valentine's Day and picking the right gift or card?

Here's what I know...

- Keep in mind that if you are dating someone, you need to acknowledge Valentine's Day in some way. If you try to pull the ol', "Valentine's Day is just a Hallmark holiday and I don't believe in it," you will just end up in the doghouse. Trust me.

- Valentine's Day can be a tricky holiday because you want to do enough so that you get brownie points for effort but you don't want to do too much or go over the top because that could scare someone off or give the wrong message. Doing enough means doing something, anything, even if it's stopping at the Food Emporium Supermarket on the way home and picking up candy and flowers. Doing too much means putting on the full court press for someone you barely know with flowery love cards, and dinner at the most romantic restaurant in the city like One if By Land, Two if By Sea.

- You need to give gifts and cards that are commensurate with the level of your relationship. This means that if you have only been out a few times, you need to pick a Shoebox Greeting card that is more playful, sarcastic and funny rather than mushy gushy. In this instance, mushy gushy will make things awkward and give off the wrong message. Just the same, if you have been dating a long time, you can't get away with a funny card or an impersonal card and you can't get away with just signing your name. If you have been together for awhile, your beau is going to expect a sentimental card, a Hallmark card that has script font and with a handwritten message in it from you.

- Keep in mind that women always compare their Valentine's Day gifts, cards and experiences with their friends and colleagues. The women always do a play by play for each other, so you need to step up. You definitely don't want your gal to be the gal by the water cooler who has nothing to brag about. You need to give her something to cluck over. And the water cooler winners are not always the ones who get the most expensive gift or were taken to the fanciest dinner. The admired woman by the water cooler is always the one who tells the most romantic story about her Valentine's Day evening that is met with the most "Ohhhhhs and Ahhhhs" about how sweet and adorable you were. Can you be that guy?

- Lingerie is a risky gift. A lot of men want to give lingerie to their ladies. First of all, they like seeing their gal in it and secondly, they think this is a good way to signal to their gal that they think she is sexy. However, if you are thinking of buying lingerie, make sure you are at the "lingerie" stage of your dating or the girl might get offended and think it is an inappropriate sexual overture. Equally, make sure that you pick tasteful lingerie- if you pick out a raunchy teddy straight from the pages of Hustler, your girl might think you don't respect her. You can only go with sleazy lingerie if sleazy and edgy is part of your sexual repertoire with your gal; don't use Valentine's Day to change things up.

- Make sure to choose a gift that your beau would like, not just something that you would like. For example, don't get her tickets to a Sixers basketball game rationalizing that it's a night out for the two of you and at least you get to see some basketball. Instead you should get her tickets to a Broadway show like Wicked that SHE would enjoy and you should go along with a big smile on your face. And girls, don't get him a manicure and pedicure for Valentine's Day because you think he has grody feet and you think of it as a "pampering day"; men don't find pampering to be enjoyable. Instead, buy him a day at Skip Barber race track and save the hygiene intervention for another day.

- Make sure you choose a gift that has something romantic and thoughtful about it and isn't just practical. Don't buy her a new blow-dryer because you know she needs one or a gift certificate to her yoga studio. Take the time to pick out a gift she would like and wouldn't buy herself. And think about going to yoga class with her; she will find this to be romantic

- If you can't spend a lot of money, go with a creative and sentimental gift. Some good ideas are things like a handmade gift certificate redeemable for one back massage or a gift certificate redeemable for 5 "non- veto-able" movie choices. Or sprinkle rose pedals and Hershey kisses all over the bedroom and have a bubble bath drawn in a candle lit bathroom. Or make a mix CD of all of your honey's favorite songs but remember it's about his or her favorites, not yours! Gifts don't have to be expensive to be romantic.

Samantha Daniels is a well known Professional Matchmaker, President of Samantha's Table Matchmaking and the author of Matchbook: The Diary of a Modern Day Matchmaker (Simon & Schuster).