Active Tweeters
At the Web2.0 Summit Twitter CEO Dick Costolo shared statistics on active users. Twitter now has 100 million month active users, and of those 50% log in everyday. Twitter isn’t catching up to Facebook just yet. Facebook has more than 800 million active users, and of those 50% log in everyday.

iPhone 4$:
With a dual-core AA5 chip, new camera and optics, iCloud and Siri (Apple’s voice recognition app), the iPhone 4S is pretty impressive. Sales for the newest iPhone are pretty impressive as well. Let’s look back a bit: it took 74 days to sell the first million iPhone’s and it took three weeks to sell three million iPhone 4′s.

Drumroll, please.

It only took one weekend to sell 4 million iPhone 4S’, making a new iPhone sales record.

Now, for those of you who don’t have it yet, the question is “To upgrade or not to upgrade?”

Social & Mobile
Highlights from a recent ComScore Study:

Those using social networks from their mobile device grew 37% in the past year and more than half accessed social networks almost every day.

Facebook’s mobile audience is approaching 60 million users. In the past year, mobile posts grew by 50% on Facebook,  75% on Twitter and 69% on LinkedIn.

70% of mobile social networkers posted a status update from their phone and the majority of them read posts from brands from their device.

“Social Jobs”
Facebook and the Department of Labor are working together to connect job-seekers and employers through Facebook. Called Social Jobs,  “The partnership’s goal will be to facilitate employment for America’s jobless through the use of social networks.” Social Jobs aims to provide job postings and resources for job-seekers and recruiters. Like “Social Jobs Partnership” on Facebook to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/socialjobs. (With never-ending privacy issues, I wonder if people will be weary of “Social Jobs” as many don’t want potential employers seeing any part of their Facebook life.)

Are You LinkedIn with your Classmates?
While Facebook was adding features to help users find jobs, LinkedIn was busy adding a feature to help users expand their network. “LinkedIn Classmates” is a new feature that makes it easier to connect with alumni from your college/university. As LinkedIn described,  “In the years since college, your classmates have become experienced professionals, industry experts, potential clients and trusted colleagues – in short, people who can help you expand your horizons.” This new tool allows you to see where alumni work, what they do, and where they live. You can also see what you have in common now, making it easier to network and connect with them.

-Anna (@alucas9)

New #4sq Features
Foursquare has made two notable updates to their app this week:

Tips List
They have added a tips list feature, which allows people to categorize a group of places. So now, for example, you can create a tip list for your favorite local bars or coffee shops.

Event Check-Ins
Foursquare has also announced official event check-ins. Foursquare has partnered with ESPN, movietickets.com, and Songkick to populate it’s database with sporting, movie and concert events for you to check-into.

Higher Ed and Foursquare
In an article this week, InsideHigherEd discussed “A recent survey by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth found that 98 percent of higher ed institutions are on Facebook, and 84 percent are on Twitter.” This is a contrast to the 20% of campuses that have adopted an institutional presence on Foursquare. Foursquare use among colleges is expected to rise as officials realize the opportunity to interact with students while they’re on campus. Just think of the engagement opportunities – such as turning a college tour into a virtual check-in game or making students aware of campus events as they’re happening.

Skype Wi-Fi
Skype has a new app for iPhone and iPad users called Skype Wi-Fi. Skype Wi-Fi allows users to connect to more than 1 million Wi-Fi Hotspots around the world. Normally you will be charged by the minute (starting at $.06 per minute), but this weekend only you can try the app for free for 60 minutes. Find out more.

Social Media Marketing Infographic

Mashable Infographic

-Anna (@alucas9)

Who Owns What? The Smartphone Market

According to a recent Nielsen study, Android currently owns 39% of the smartphone market. Apple trails Android OS by more than 10%, owning only 28% of the market. However, according to TechCrunch, Android’s have a rather high return rate. View the following chart to see a breakdown of the market.

Recruitment Plug-in: “Apply with LinkedIn”

For companies who are looking for a fresh recruitment tool, the latest LinkedIn Plug-in may be worth a try.  LinkedIn has created a simple “Apply with LinkedIn” button that companies can embed onto their website.  Then, with one click, Jobseekers can apply for the position with their LinkedIn profile.

Rumors has it…

There’s nothing like a good rumor to get the weekend kicked off. Well, that is at least true when the rumor involves the iPhone. There have been numerous “tipsters” sending out photos of the iPhone5 (rumored to debut in September) and the cheaper iPhone4S (also rumored to debut in September). According to these sources the iPhone5 will be thinner and the iPhone4S will be lighter (due to a plastic back). See the images below and read more about these rumors here.

Promoted Tweets to Followers

Twitter has officially debuted promoted tweets to followers. The new plan allows an advertisers Tweet to appear at the top of followers timelines. Current partners include Starbucks, Groupon, LivingSocial, JetBlue and Sephora. Twitter sugar coats this change by explaining, “We all come to Twitter to connect with the latest information on the topics and people we care about. So when we decide to follow a favorite brand, business or charitable organization, we expect to be among the first to get a special announcement, access to exclusive content or a great offer.”

Netflix On The Rise…. In Price

It appears unlimited streaming and DVD plans from Netflix will no longer be bundled. Netflix announced this week that the current pricing of $9.99 a mo. for unlimited streaming and 1 DVD at-a-time will no longer be available. Rather, users can purchase unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month or they can purchase the one-at-a-time unlimited DVD service for $7.99 a month. As you can see by the image below, many Netflix users took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the change.

-Anna (@alucas9)

Revamping Realtime Search

Google Realtime Search is no longer available (for now). Google’s deal with Twitter to aggregate tweets expired on July 2^nd taking much of the content with it.  Google will be re-launching Realtime search (no set time frame) and this time it will include content from their latest social media endeavor Google+. There will be a variety of sources Realtime search will pull from when it re-launches.

Facebook Announcements

Video Calling

On the heels of the Google+ announcement Facebook held a press conference to announce “something awesome.” As has long been rumored, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype. You can now video chat with your friends (one-on-one) through Facebook.

Chat

Facebook also announced new chat features. Facebook will now organize your “buddy list” based on the people you talk to most. You will also be able to participate in group chats. The really “awesome” thing is that Facebook confirmed they have over 750 million active users and that 4 billion things are shared on Facebook everyday.

Goodbye, Unlimited Data

Those who have the VeriPhone (Verizon iPhone) may want to read this. It has been confirmed that Verizon will no longer be offering unlimited data plans. On July 7th Verizon switched to new usage based price plans. Existing customers will be able to keep their current plans. However, those who switch to Verizon after July 7^th will pay $30 for 2 GBs of data, $50 for 5 GBs of data, and $80 for 10 GBs of data.

Apple App Stats

This week Apple shared their latest app store statistics, stating that “More than 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the revolutionary App Store and more than 425,000 apps are available, including more than 100,000 native iPad apps, to consumers in 90 countries.”

-Anna (@alucas9)

Happy #EarthDay!

Many online users are taking to Twitter and Facebook to show their support for Earth Day. You can join in the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #EarthDay or keep updated on Facebook by liking The Earth Day Network.

Some Earth Day deals to be aware of:

• Starbucks: Bring a reusable mug to Starbucks for free java or tea
• The Disney Store: Bring in 5 disposable plastic bags for them to recycle and receive a free reusable shopping bag.
• Lowe’s: They will be giving away 1 million trees on April 23rd.
• National Park Service: For Earth Day, The National Park service has made all National parks free from April 16-24^th.

Noisy Tweeter Feature

Twitter is testing a new feature to deal with noisy Twitter users. The feature appears to hide tweets if a user posts several times in a row. As the following image shows, the users most recent tweet will still be displayed and will be followed by a collapsed bar that you can expand if you want to see the other tweets. Learn more at TNW.

Photo from The Next Web

I “Like” Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the Facebook “Like Button.” The like button debuted only one year ago at the f8 conference and has since become one of Facebook’s most popular features.

InsideFacebook highlighted some of the stats behind the button:

• 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook each day
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook (including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites)
• Over half of the 25 fastest growing Comscore U.S. retail sites use Facebook
• Media sites that adopt the Like button average a greater than 300% increase in referral traffic from Facebook

High-tech Dining

Check out the article E la Carte: Table-Top Computers Bring Restaurants To The Future (With Bonus Trivia!) by TechCrunch. It highlights a new high-tech way to dine. E la Cart, a computer based restaurant system, debuted this week. At the lucky 20 restaurants using these systems, diners are given a portable tablet-like device complete with the restaurant menu, games, and more. Diners order by selecting what they want on the device and their requests are sent right to the kitchen. And when they’re all finished, diners can even even pay with E la Cart. It is certainly an interesting concept to keep an eye on.

Can Not Cloud Compute

On Wednesday, Amazon experienced major connectivity and latency issues with their cloud computing system, which eventually led to a temporary system collapse. As CNN reports,

“The trouble was apparently due to excessive re-mirroring of its Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volumes — this essentially created countless new backups of the EBS volumes that took up Amazon’s storage capacity and triggered a cascading effect that caused downtime on hundreds (or more likely thousands) of websites for almost 24 hours.”

Foursquare, Quora, Hootsuite, and Reddit were among those affected. As FathomDB founder Justin Santa Barbara pointed out, “Cloud computing is still in its infancy, and today’s events make it clear that we still have a lot of work to do.”

-Anna (@alucas9)

Facebook Streaming Movies:

Warner Bros. is testing out streaming movies on Facebook with “The Dark Knight”. The movie rental costs users $3.00 (Facebook will receive 30% of revenues) and can be watched for 48 hours after purchase.  If the test goes well, we are likely to see more video streaming options on Facebook.

Foursquare v3.0:

Foursquare’s latest app version, v3.0, has some innovative new features. They have done away with the “tips” tab and replaced it with an “explore” tab. The explore tab will look at your information (where you’ve checked in, who you’re connected with, your favorite places to check in) and what you’re looking for (nightlife, sushi, etc.) to show you what Foursquare thinks you’ll like nearby. You will also be able to see how many of your friends have been to a recommended place, and what reviews have been posted about it.

The iPad 2 Available Today:

The iPad 2 has arrived. You can order it online now, and purchase it in store starting at 5pm local time. They will be sold at the Apple Store, AT&T, Best Buy, Target, Verizon Wireless, Walmart and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Starting early today, people were lined up at Apple Stores all over the country in hopes of being some of the first to get the latest tech gadget.

Image from CultofMac.com

SXSW Interactive:

South by SouthWest’s interactive portion was kicked off today in Austin, Texas. Five days of networking events, presentations, announcements and exhibits, all centered around emerging technology. For those of us who can’t be there, we can follow along with the hashtag #SXSW or visit our favorite social media news websites (such as http://techcrunch.com/sxsw/) for updates.

Japan & Social Media:

When a tsunami and an 8.8 magnitude earthquake tragically hit Japan this morning, many took to social media. Some families relied on social media to get in touch with their loved ones, and Google even launched a Japan earthquake person finder to help victims and families locate each other.

There has been an overwhelming amount of support spread though social media channels:

-Anna (@alucas9)

Apple announced the iPad 2 this week. The iPad 2 is 33% thinner, has duel webcams, and new color options. The prices will range from $499 (for 16GB WiFi-only models) to $829 (for the works) and will be available on March 11, 2011. Watch the following video to see more about the new iPad:

(For those who are TeamCoCo, watch a spoof on the commercial here.)

@CharlieSheen:

You’ve probably been following the tirades of Charlie Sheen… actually I know some of you are (on twitter, at least). Charlie Sheen joined Twitter (@charliesheen) this week, and gained a million followers in a little over 24 hours, breaking a Guinness World record.

Side note: Three Feedbacker’s made it into the list of Charlie Sheen’s top 10 followers. #Winning

Libya’s Internet Down

The government has shut down the internet for most of Libya, including the capital city of Tripoli. The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. firms that monitor global Internet networks reported that Web traffic in and out of Libya was disconnected abruptly Thursday afternoon local time and continued to be unavailable late Friday.” This is all too familiar to what we saw a few weeks ago in Egypt. Learn more here.

Behind the Scenes with Old Spice

Old Spice brought you the man that smells like a man, man, and now they’re bring you behind the scenes of their latest commercial shoot. Take a look at the following video, which shows the creative process behind the latest Old Spice commercial:

Healthcare Pick: Emerging Media Whitepaper

Those who are members of SHSMD, take a look at the official Emerging Media Handbook/Whitepaper from SHSMD – Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development where Feedback’s Dean Browell wrote the introduction as the Chair of the Emerging Media Task Force.

-Anna (@alucas9)

Groupon has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues lately, but this week, deal rival LivingSocial made the news. LivingSocial’s deal on Wednesday was 50% off an Amazon gift card – allowing people to get a $20 gift card for only $10. Over one million vouchers were sold.  As Mashable pointed out,

“Amazon, clearly interested in helping the startup it just invested $175 million in, will likely take a big hit as a result of the deal’s popularity. The online marketplace will lose millions of dollars — at least $10 per voucher — when LivingSocial members make good on the offer. The company, however, probably sees the loss as a net gain and a worthwhile marketing cost.”

Google Offers:

More daily coupon news: Google will be launching their own deal service, Google Offers. The deal service will work much like Groupon and LivingSocial. Users will receive a deal of the day email and have an allotted time to purchase the deal. Google Offers appears to still be in the testing phases – but look out Groupon – there’s about to be a new coupon deal in town. As many are saying about Google’s failed attempt at buying Groupon (for $6 billion) and their subsequent plan to launch Google Offers, “If you can’t buy ‘em, beat ‘em”.

Social Network Takes Gold:

I love that a movie about social media won a traditional media award. Actually, it won several of them. The Social Network took home four Golden Globes this week for “Best Motion Picture, Drama”, “Best Director, Motion Picture”, “Best Screen Play, Motion Picture”, and “Best Score.”

Google’s CEO Switch:

Google has made some changes to their upper management this week, replacing CEO Eric Schmidt with co-founder Larry Page. Schmidt will still be working at Google as executive chairman. The change came as a surprise to many, and left people wondering, “Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google?” As Mashable reported, Schmidt’s current ownership stake at Google is worth $5.77 billion and he intends to sell half a million shares, the dollar equivalent of $335 million dollars.

Facebook & Feature Phones:

On Wednesday, Facebook launched a mobile app for non smart phone users. The app is compatible with over 2,500 mobile phones, and can be accessed via a data usage plan. For some global users, the first 90 days of accessing the data plan for Facebook will be free. The facts, from All Things Digital:

“Facebook today released a feature-phone app that is designed to be kind of a gateway drug for both Facebook participation and mobile data usage. The company has arranged deals with 13 carriers to give users of the app free Facebook-related data access for 90 days. If you look at the countries where the launch partner carriers are from, you can see where Facebook thinks it can grow: Romania, India, Mexico and elsewhere.”

-Anna (@alucas9)

The Best Of…
The best tech, music and more from 2010

Best, Worst, and Surprise Tech of 2010:

Mashable came out with a list of the best win, flop, and surprise tech of 2010. The winner for 2010 was the iPad. The iPad proved to be a huge success; Apple sold over 8.5 million in 2010. Mashable chose Google Buzz as the biggest flop of 2010, and Groupon as the biggest surprise of 2010. Google Buzz, essentially a mesh of gmail and the status update, never took off. The deal a day service Groupon, on the other hand, is so popular it is now worth a reported $6 billion dollars (Oh, and did I mention, Google tried to buy Groupon…).

Best (i)Tunes of 2010:

What is the top music of 2010? According to iTunes, the top singles include Train, “Hey, Soul Sister,” Katy Perry, “California Gurls” (feat. Snoop Dogg), Eminem, “Love the Way You Lie” (feat. Rihanna), and Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”. Best selling albums of 2010 included Eminem, Recovery, Lady Gaga, The Fame, Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More, and Jack Johnson, To the Sea. See full list here: http://bit.ly/haj6vf

More Best of Tech:

Other tech items that make my list include Microsoft Kinect, which is a controller free game console.1 million Kinect’s were sold in the first month. Also, the iPhone 4 turned out to be a huge hit in 2010, with HD photo capabilities, Facetime, and a multitouch display. What were your favorite technology items of 2010?

The Night Of…
Ensuring a fun-filled and connected New Years Eve.

Time Square Countdown:

Access Time Square from anywhere. The official time square ball holiday app counts down and shows footage of the ball drop. So for those who can’t make it to NYC for NYE, at least you don’t have to miss the show.

If you’re in Time Square on NYE and are the mayor of the Time Square Visitor Center by noon on NYE, you win 2 tickets to the official New Year’s Eve VIP Party. Details here.

SCVNGR+AE=4Charity:

If you are in Time Square for New Years Eve, you might like to know that SCVNGR is teaming up with America Eagle this New Years Eve. For every SCVNGR task you complete, SCVNGR/AE will donate $10 to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Skal!:

IKEA has created the app, Skal!, which is a fun NYE toasting app. You pick your glass style and watch it fill with champagne. Clink glasses with the iPhone next to you and your contact information will be shared, and a snapshot photo will be taken of the cheers for you or your friend to post on Facebook or Twitter.

For the Kids:

Have kids? Jeff Kelley (@JephKelley) found this great website where you can set the time you want an animated ball to drop – be it 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, or 11pm. It even does the count down. So, change the clocks, put this website up, and the kids will think they’re staying up for the fun.

More To Come…
Looking forward to 2011

Is iPad 2 coming soon? When will Facebook update company pages (we’ve seen a sneak peek of what they’ll likely look like)? Will Verizon carry the iPhone in 2011? What new technology will we be introduced to at CES? With the ever-changing landscape of social media, I can’t wait to see what’s to come in 2011. Thanks for tuning into my picks of the week this year… exciting changes to come for my pick’s as well!  Happy New Year’s!

-Anna (@alucas9)

Log in to MySpace with Facebook:

MySpace and Facebook held a joint press conference on Thursday, where they announced that you can now log in to MySpace with Facebook. Being called “Mashup with Facebook,” your Facebook likes and interests will be automatically pulled into your MySpace account, making it easier to connect with entertainers. MySpace is also planning to integrate Facebook’s like button on their social network.

The Beatles Hit iTunes:

If you’re a Beatles fan, you may be excited to hear that Apple announced this week that you can finally purchase Beatles songs and albums on iTunes. Songs cost 1.29 a pop. Visit iTunes to purchase.

Twitter Analytics:

Twitter is testing an analytics tool, which is rumored to debut by the end of 2010. As Mashable reports,

“With Twitter Analytics, users will be able to see a plethora of data about their account; for example, information about which tweets are most successful, which tweets caused people to unfollow, and who the most influential users are that reply and retweet their messages.”

Cool!

Boutiques.com:

Google has introduced a new way to shop this week, debuting boutiques.com. This is a personalized shopping experience, which uses computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze your taste and match to clothing you can purchase. As of now, it is only available for women’s clothing, and is only available in the U.S. and in Canada.

Facebook’s Messaging System:

There are over 4 billion Facebook messages sent each day, which is one of the reasons that this week, Facebook announced a new messaging system. The new messaging system offers seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox. This is not email according to Zuckerberg, who explained, “Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key.” The system will be rolled out slowly in the next few months.