MobBase: Drag and Drop iPhone App Maker for Bands
Best known for its web-based remixing service, MixMatchMusic is expanding to help bands further engage their fans. The company is offering a drag-and-drop interface with a number of different app templates. Musicians customize application designs by switching out page backgrounds, buttons and even features.
FeaturesAlthough products are created using the template tool, no two applications look alike. Some of the available features include:
1. Music: Artists can offer samples of their collections and connect fans to album artwork, liner notes, lyrics and download links.
2. Videos: with MobBase, artists can pull in their YouTube video streams as well as encourage fans to tag their video content. from here bands can aggregate videos from a fan's point of view.
3. Photos: Band accounts on Flickr and Picasa can be instantly streamed to the photo feature. this way concert pics and backstage exclusives automatically upload as new events occur.
4. News / Info: Artists can create biography pages and pull in related RSS feeds from blogs and traditional media sources. they can also integrate multiple Twitter accounts and import fan tweets based on a band's designated hashtag.
5. Shows: The tool also allows bands to import concert event streams from MySpace and MixMatchMusic's ArtistData tool. from here concert listings are automatically updated including ticket purchase links and Google maps.
Approval and Pricing While a number of DIY-app platforms may appear on the horizon, part of the MobBase service is that MixMatchMusic handles the App store approval process. in the event that you'd like to change your app, co-founders Charles Feinn and Alan Khalfin assure us that there is no need to resubmit your app for approval. You simply log-in to the MobBase dashboard and change your pages.
The company currently has 32 pilot apps pending approval including customized products for bands like Pepper and Everclear. MixMatchMusic also has partnerships with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance and a number of other indie labels. The company will look to forge deals with web 2.0-related service providers like Bandcamp and Topspin Media in the coming months.
As for fees, applications are $20 dollars to activate. Free apps are priced at $15 dollars a month for the first 500 installs with $5 dollars per additional 1000 downloads. Meanwhile, paid apps cost $20 dollars per month for the first 500 installs and $6 dollars per month for each additional 1000. MobBase does not take any application sales fees in regards to revenue share. As per the standard iTunes affiliate music program, the company receives 5% of purchased music downloads. To get started visit MobBase.com for details. For a sneak peek at the design process check out the below screenshots:
USA Bill Requires Schools & Libraries BLOCK Social Networking & Chat Sites
US House Resolution 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), was passed by a 410 to 15 vote tonight. If the Resolution becomes law social networking sites and chat rooms must be blocked by schools and libraries or those institutions will lose their federal internet subsidies. according to the resolution's top line summary it will "amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms."
Adults will be able to ask for the library's permission to use such sites. The Resolution will now go to the US Senate for a vote before being offered to the President for signature into law.
The rhetoric from advocates was all about MySpace. For example, Texas Republican Ted Poe says, "social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids."
An incredibly vague law, DOPA will require schools and libraries to block access to a potentially huge range of sites on the internet. The goal is to protect children from adult predators. Sites that must be blocked include those that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow "communication among users."
410-15 was a shocking vote. I write about it here because it has the potential to impact a huge portion of our readership and the companies we profile on this site. Though the viability of enforcing such a law is open to question, web services offering collaboration in education are looking seriously endangered. Secondary collaborative consequences of commercial web sites used in schools aren't looking good either. Or perhaps it's just symbolic of the divide in the US between on one hand those of us who are excited about the incredible potential of web services to enable personal creativity and on-demand global communication and on the other hand those who believe that the internet is just a series of tubes.
I'm not the best person to analyze this though. Here's who I recommend:
- Declan McCullagh at ZDNet has posted a very thorough background article on DOPA.
- Andy Carvin writes Learning Now, a blog about education and technology for PBS, and has set up a page called DOPAWatch to aggregate blog posts on the topic.
- danah boyd is probably the web's leading expert in analyzing the politics of MySpace and youth social networking.
- Will Richardson's Weblogg-Ed is a great source for all things Learning 2.0
- Vicki a. Davis is a Christian school teacher in Georgia who uses blogs, wikis, podcasting and more in her classrooms. Vicki has written a number of powerful posts on DOPA and I would expect she'll have something to say in the morning.
If youth are the most likely adopters of new social software then I think it would be in the interests of all who are interested in social software to watch the US government's attempts to keep children from it.
USA bill Requires Schools & Libraries BLOCK Social Networking & Chat Sites
Justin Bieber Wants 'A Girl Who Is Funny'
Justin Bieber participated in a live MySpace Ustream chat on Thursday in London, where he dished all about girlfriends, inspiration, his favorite things and, of course, his new album, My World 2.0, out next Tuesday. Bieber even got fans' hopes up by saying he wouldn't rule out dating one of them.
"I'm really excited about [my album], but I didn't change my style. I'm still pop, R&B — that's always been what I love," he said about the new album's vibe compared to My World. "My fans inspire me, as well as my mom inspires me and my dad and God inspires me. I've looked up to a lot of musicians, like Michael Jackson and Boyz II Men. ... I met Boyz II Men. I didn't get to meet Michal Jackson."
Bieber cited Boyz II Men's "Down on one Knee" as his favorite song and "Smallville" as his favorite show. Asked what his three wishes of all time would be, he answered, "Well, the first wish would be for unlimited wishes because that just makes sense. and then the second wish would be for, I don't know ... to be able to fly ... just fly everywhere. and then the third would be to get rid of poverty."
As for his love life, the 16-year-old said that he's been in a relationship before, but has yet to fall in love. "I've had, like, three girlfriends," he said. and when one viewer asked if he'd ever date a fan, he replied, "I think that it's whatever the situation is. if that happens, it happens."
So, what does he look for in potential ladies? "I look for a girl who is funny," he shared. "A girl who has a nice smile."
Justin Bieber spoofed by TV star Aziz Ansari in new 'Funny or Die' video
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Justin Bieber is one of the most popular people in the world right now, so we really shouldn't take it as too much of a surprise that actors and comedians left and right are popping out of the woodwork to spoof him.
For evidence of this, all you have to do is look at "Parks and Recreation" star Aziz Ansari's new parody video for "Funny or Die." in it, one of his alter egos, a popular music performer, proclaims that Bieber stole the idea for "Baby" from him after shooting him down and vandalizing his recording studio.
Is it great to see Justin Bieber inspiring comedy? It most definitely is, but there is much better comedy (and much better work from Aziz) out there than this clip, which just relies more on shock value than anything else. It also doesn't potentially help that the majority of Justin's fans are probably too young to watching something full of profanity, violence, and the like.
If you want to check out this Justin Bieber parody, follow this link (but know that it contains very strong language and violence).
Do you find the idea for the video funny? Let me know your thoughts with a comment and stay tuned for more of the latest news.
Want to read more of the latest TV news? Then subscribe to receive continuous updates. you can also follow me on Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter.
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Justin Bieber spoofed by TV star Aziz Ansari in new 'funny or Die' video
KL Detector Can Detect Keyloggers, But Not Save You From A Facebook Virus
Malware is all around the internet and when using a computer you should know how to protect yourself. do not download anything from people and websites you do not trust and do not access websites you do not trust. Just be very careful and do smart things. this is 2010 and the internet is not at its beginnings anymore privacy settings have become very important. you have to control things you share on the web because you might suffer afterwards. one type of malware that can ruin your privacy is a keylogger.
Keyloggers (like most malware) are programs that run on your computer and then send information to remote hackers. A keylogger can help a remote attacker to hijack your Twitter, Facebook or MySpace accounts, access your emails, and they can even steal your PayPal or bank password. Not all keyloggers are built by hackers as business owners can install such programs on their employees' computers in order to check what they're doing. Be careful what photos and what you type on your computer because your boss might be spying on you.
You might lose your Facebook or Twitter account if a remote attacker steals your password and then he might infect your friends' computers. how? Well, you have friends that trust you and they might download what you send or share.
If you want to detect keyloggers then you can download KL Detector. this is a free software that detects keyloggers, but it doesn't remove or quarantine them. If you want to remove or quarantine keyloggers, then you could buy SpyReveal which costs $50 or Keylogger Hunter which costs $14. Hit up this link to an interesting report about keyloggers and how can they affect your life.
KL Detector Can Detect Keyloggers, but Not Save you from A Facebook Virus
MySpace Hacked Using Simple HTML Exploit
It appears a new hack and exploit has appeared on MySpace – Alicia Keys profile is affected along with a variety of others to-date. the hack and exploit is pretty simple but very "deadly". Basically a user puts a link to the infected ste with just a simple href tag (no script tag) using some css to position the element anywhere that an element doesn't already live. so if you mis-click, you get sent to the infected site and it prompts you to install a codec to listen to Alicia's music. Of course it's not a codec, it's some sort of virus.
Roger Thompson from Exploit Prevention Labs sent over the following information and video.
Roger tells us it's MySpace that has been hacked, as opposed to the bad guys getting the usernames and passwords of a few bands (other bands hit include "Greements of Fortune," a French funk band, "Dykeenies," a rock band from Glasgow, and several others.
When a visitor visits the infected page, they're first hit by an exploit (which installs malware in the background if they're not fully patched against the latest security vulnerabilities), and next they're presented with a fake Codec which tells them they need to install a codec to view the video. so even if they're patched, they can fallvictim to the exploit.
Perhaps most interesting, the bad guys are using a creative hack we haven't seen before: the HTML in the page contains some sort of image map, which basically makes it so you can click on anything over a wide area on the page and your click is directed to the malicious hyperlink. we tested it and even the ads were affected.
Here is a video overview of the exploit. PLEASE DO NOT CLICK THE LINK ON ALICIA'S PAGE.
Instant 'Idol'
the drama of "Ameri can Idol" starts Tues day, when the show hits the road for the audition round.
It's that promising time, when everyone has a chance -- until they open their mouths.
Based on reports about some of the more than 150 hopeful "Idols" who won coveted golden tickets to the Hollywood Round during the auditions taped last fall, here's who we hear you should keep an eye out for:
Boston auditions, Tuesday, 1/12:
* Christy Castillo, 22, from Lawrence, Mass. she auditioned with Keyshia Cole's "I Remember." the Latina communications major has a fondness for R&B/neo-soul ballads.
* Boyish Corey Amaral, 20, from Rochester, NY. He sang Jason Mraz's "I'm yours." Despite an arm deformity, he plays guitar in the Corey Amaral Band and is still playing gigs with them.
Atlanta auditions, Wednesday, 1/13:
* Holly Hardin, 21, from Rockmart, GA. she auditioned with Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman enough (To Take my Man)." she might look familiar because the Southern gal made it into the top 40 in last summer's "America's got Talent."
* Drake Johnson, 16, from Florence, SC. the sweet-faced, acoustic guitar-toting teen sang Kanye West's "Heartless" and Mraz's "I'm yours."
* Krissa Quill, 29, from Atlanta. she has an "Idol"-ready backstory; her Marine brother died in Iraq, she attended the same high school as Ryan Seacrest and won the local Atlanta "Idol" contest.
Chicago auditions, Tuesday, 1/19:
* Eliza Siep, 28, from Chicago. the hair and makeup artist -- aka Eliza Cuts, former paramour of my Chemical Romance's singer Gerard way -- performed "Oh Holy Night" and Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U."
* Josh Shaneour, 18, from Temperance, Mich. He sang Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." Rocking over-sized glasses and a buzzcut, the NASCAR fan calls himself "j-money" on MySpace.
Orlando auditions, Wednesday, 1/20:
* Samantha Leigh, 22, from Tampa. she sang Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady" after winning a local Fox "Idol" contest. She's a repeat auditioner, who tried before when she was 17.
* Brad Iturriaga, 29, from Plant City, Fla. the appliance salesman and church worship leader sang bill Withers' "Ain't no Sunshine." his wife and three sisters also tried out, but only he got the call back.
Dallas auditions, Tuesday, 1/26:
* Heather Elmer, 27, from South Jordan, Utah. she sang "Over the Rainbow" from the "Wizard of Oz," dressed as Dorothy. this is the seventh time she auditioned and the fifth time she's gotten a call back.
LA auditions, Wednesday, 1/27:
* Tasha Layton, 27, from Los Angeles. she sang Joss Stone's "Baby Baby Baby" and Coldplay's "The Scientist."
* Daniel Murillo, 27, from Victorville, CA. He's a touring member of Hollywood Undead and plays in the SoCal rock band Lorene Drive.
DIY PR Success – 7 Social Media Tips
Business owners can be the best PR managers. using social media and the Internet as a distribution platform you can match the results of even the best PR agency. however, the amateur marketer can need a little help learning the short-cuts to early success.
Here are some easy steps to get these social media tools returning real PR and branding results:
1. Set-up your PR and Branding Platform. start small and focused. this platform is going to be where you drive people to learn more about your business, products, and services. Pointing back to this central focal point with all of your PR and branding campaigns with assist lead generation.
If you are technically inclined a simple blog is a great place to start. however, it is not necessary--you can chose to make Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn your personal brand platform. Make sure a visitor is engaged with your strategy when they arrive.
2. Listen First. Once you have a good platform, a base station, you need to start listening to your market. Consumers are all over the Internet and making it easier and easier to survey their needs.
A great place to start listening is on Twitter--the premiere social networking and conversation tool. Search for key words associated with your market in the Twitter search engine, then sit back and see what they expect.
3. Participate. Listening is important, but participation builds trust, relationships, and targeted audiences. Ultimately, and online PR and branding strategy online is community building.
Community building means conversations and conversations build audiences. Audiences that will trust your recommendations, marketing, and services. Participation in your community will create sales leads for your business, if done appropriately.
4. Give Value First. Consumers are naturally skeptical, especially online. Nothing brings a sale faster than "giving first" and breaking that natural skepticism. Online publishing tools and platforms have made is a snap to leverage the Internet for big-time audience generation and distribution.
Creating valuable content targeted at solving problems for your ideal customer can make a big impact. this can be as simple as a blog post, eBook, or amateur video. this little effort and value given freely and distributed widely will bring enormous return.
5. Build Relationships. You have to care! Consumers and customers see this in a heartbeat--and they react. Quickly returning emails, phone calls, and even tweets show a passion for your business and the customers you serve.
Customers greeted with a sense of urgency can be the biggest advocates and promoters of your products and services.
6. be Helpful. Consumers are using the Internet more and more to find information and solutions to their problems. being helpful is one the most powerful marketing tactics. the psychological principle of reciprocity can produce incredible returns on a simple helpful tip, pointer, or referral.
If you know the answer to a question--help someone. there are lots of ways to help online and build your brand. Check out LinkedIn answers or Yahoo!answers.
7. Promote others. having a successful PR and branding strategy is not all about you. Promoting others builds your audience and reputation. this technique has two benefits: Getting the reciprocity of helping someone else with a campaign. second, you get the attention and trust of those who follow your advice and gain value.
Promoting others is like doubling your product base and increasing your marketing reach.
7.5 Engage PR and Marketing Professionals. with so many social media tools available and free advice on the Internet it is easy to rush in without a plan. doing PR and branding without clear objectives and concise messages can be an obvious train wreck to consumers--a lasting bad impression.
Professional advice and guidance from PR and marketing professionals can help you set firm footing and foundation under your idea. Then you can make do-it-yourself have real impact.
12 best tools to raise your Twitter profile
It uses this information to extrapolate your likely follower growth in the future. You can also find statistics such as your current ranking on Twitter according to follower numbers, and you can then compare this to the most popular users on the service.
2. Twitalyzer
Find out how much influence you have on Twitter. Twitalyzer analyses your activity in five areas: influence, signal, generosity, velocity and clout.
Signal indicates the proportion of tweets that contain information, generosity measures how willing the user is to re-tweet, velocity watches how regularly tweets are made and clout refers to how often the user is referenced by others. Influence is a combination of all of these scores.
3. TwitVid
Share video clips via Twitter. You can upload videos and add a tweet to go with it. TwitVid links to Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.
4. The Twitter Tag Project
Follow Friday is a weekly event on Twitter where users recommend new people to follow. You do this by sending a tweet including the username or names of the people who you want to recommend marked with the hash tag '#followfriday'.
The Twitter Tag Project provides a tool to help you work out who to recommend. Enter your username, and it'll suggest a bunch of people based on your last 200 tweets, ready formatted into #followfriday tweets.
5. TweetGrid
TweetGrid offers a similar service to Monitter, but integrates elements of a full Twitter client. You can log in and use it to send tweets and make re-tweets as well as monitoring searches in real time.
You can also opt for different page layouts, including three columns, or grids of three-by-three searches, giving you nine searches on one page.
6. Twitterholic
Find out how addicted you are to Twitter by entering your username at this site. You'll get an overall ranking and a ranking by your location. You can also see what tags have been applied to your account. Twitterholic also shows the top 100 Twitter users for context
7. Friend or Follow
Worried about who's following you back, or who's dropped you shortly after following you? Friend or Follow helps you find these answers. go to the site and enter your username.
Friend or Follow then analyses your account and presents you with three lists: people you're following but aren't following you back; people who follow you who you aren't following back and people you're following who are also following you.
8. TwitterFeed
Automatically notify your Twitter followers whenever you post to your blog. It does this, simply enough, by linking your blog's RSS feed to your Twitter account.
You can sign in using an open ID and then link your Twitter account. TwitterFeed also enables you to check for updates at hourly or daily intervals and include your blog post title in the automatic tweet.
9. Dabr
Dabr is a lightweight web-based front-end for Twitter that's optimised for mobile use. It offers many of the functions that other Twitter clients provide, and increasing numbers of desktop PC users have switched to Dabr because of its speed and ease of use.
Icons next to each tweet enable you to reply, re-tweet, mark as a favourite or direct-message the user. Pictures appear as thumbnails in the timeline
10. mr Tweet
Mr Tweet helps you to find new followers based on people you already follow by looking at their followers and people that they recommend. If you recommend people to mr Tweet, your followers will see your recommendations and mr Tweet will use them to help improve his recommendations, which you'll see when you visit.
11. Twittervision
Watch a selection of tweets as they are posted in realtime set against their locations on a world map. Twittervision is fascinating to watch, although of course you only see a small fraction of the tweets currently being made around the planet. It does gives you a feel for where the global Twitter hotspots are, though
12. Monitter
Monitter supplies real-time search updates from Twitter presented in multiple columns. Search by username, hash tag or keyword. You can enter a different search in each column, and they constantly update.
There's no need to log in or even have a Twitter account. this makes Monitter a useful place to go if you've been working with a client application and have used up the limited number of API calls per hour Twitter permits you to make.
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First published in PC Plus Issue 288
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Top 5 Things Ruining Twitter
Twitter is an amazing platform that is revolutionizing the way we communicate and discuss our lunch plans. That being said, there are several trends that are posed to kill this birdy. Ok, maybe kill is a tad dramatic, but they certainly make things less desirable for someone like myself.
So without further ado, I give you the top 5 things ruining Twitter right now.
Holy hell is retweeting out of control or what? Twitter is quickly becoming a massive link dump for blogs and spammers galore. People are going as far as to "shake up" their friends for retweets via direct message. it reminds me of that old men's bathroom tip, if you're retweeting more than 3 times a day, you're playing with it. Be mindful of your retweet noise levels, and only reach out for a retweet when it's really worth it. And really think twice next time before retweeting that Mashable article.
Changing your avatar to reflect the strife of the week is pretty silly. I say this not to devalue the importance of these events (Iran, for example), but I'm sick of my Twitter stream running green, black, or whatever else. if you want make a stand donate your time and money to it, or go throw a rock in someones face. Tell me the story through your tweets and links, not a colored overlay.
Twitterfeed is a brilliant service that takes any RSS feed and posts the results to Twitter. used by lots of bloggers (myself included) it's a great way to auto post your latest entries. only problem is just about every spammer bot also uses this service to blast crap and pollute Twitter. They take random RSS feeds, pipe them through Twitterfeed and presto, an automated birdie. I think Twitterfeed should go to a paid model right now (I'm happy to pay) and eliminate 90% of the crap coming into the stream.
Yes spam, of course this is an issue, now more so than ever. I can tell you having seen the entire "MySpace Marketing" movement come and go (I even wrote a book on it), this is going to really hurt Twitter. both from an infrastructure standpoint and user experience, spam really kills it. I'm not sure how many people Twitter HQ has monitoring spam but they should probably double it, and more proactivly delete accounts and ban IPs.
I actually think Follow Friday is a fine idea, but with any good idea it usually becomes warped and stupid. Truth is most of you are doing it wrong. sometimes I get included in #FF post and click through to see who gave me a mention. there I find there dump of other #FF tweets, blasting out some 20 names at a time with no context what-so-ever. Why should I follow them? because you said so? just do me a favor, click through here to read about Follow Friday from its creator, and learn how to do it right.
What do you think is ruining Twitter?
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