Oregon senior citizens Bruce and Esther Huffman were playing with their new laptop and trying to figure out how to use its camera function. They ended up inadvertently making a video that’s been watched more than 4 million times since a granddaughter put it on YouTube last month.
He sings, burps and makes faces — and gets a little frisky. She keeps trying to find out how the dang thing works.
via Haven’t Seen The ‘Webcam 101 For Seniors’ Video Yet? Here It Is : The Two-Way : NPR.
Hard drives are getting bigger and faster every year, but they’re just barely keeping pace with the rate at which our data are expanding. A new service called Bitcasa wants to be the last hard drive you ever need, by offering seamless and infinite (infinite!) cloud-based storage for all of your data.
Bitcasa is a simple concept: a little piece of software lives on your computer and creates a virtual drive by connecting to Bitcasa’s servers. Every time you save something to that drive, it goes off to live in the cloud, and you never run out of drive space. Bitcasa will figure out what files you use most often and keep them local for fast access, but in general, you’re simply not storing any data on your computer.
via New cloud service gives you ‘infinite’ HD space for $10/mo | DVICE.
Today Google launched the beginnings of an API for the company’s Google+ social network.
APIs allow outside developers to connect with and build applications on top of web services like Facebook, Twitter and now Google+. In fact much of the success of Twitter and Facebook is a result of both services’ developer APIs. If Google+ is to have any hope of catching its competitors it needs a strong API.
via Google Rolls Out a Developer API for Google+ | Webmonkey | Wired.com.
Facebook news feed updates by both users and Pages display a “Share” button that lets users repost that update to their friends. Updates that have been reposted at least once display a count of how many times they’ve been reposted next to a link labeled “View Shares”. This link helps posts stand out in the feed and indicates to your audience that other users thought the update was important and its therefore worth reading, clicking or reposting. Its important for you to solicit Shares of your updates so they receive this distinction.
Here we’ll walk-through how the View Shares link works, and provide strategies for how you can attain Shares and the benefits they bring for your business.
via How to Get Users to Repost Your Facebook Page’s News Feed Posts Through the Share Button.
This week we profile the top 10 podcasts for web designers and developers that you have nominated in the .net Awards 2011. Which one’s your favourite show?
Whether video or audio, you have nominated 10 podcasts in the .net Awards 2011 that cover the subjects that web designers and developers are passionate about with energy, enthusiasm and authority. But only one of them can be our Podcast of the Year. Who is it going to be?
Our shortlist consists of some heavyweight long-running shows, but there’s also a few new names.
via .net Awards 2011: top 10 podcasts | Feature | .net magazine.
Designing a great user interface can be a challenge, even for the most seasoned designer. Countless factors need to be taken into consideration and the difference between a good UI and a great one often boils down to paying close attention to the smallest details.
When undertaking such an important and often complex task, it’s helpful to have some handy resources for both education and inspiration. We’ve put together a list of some of our favorites below. Since we can only scratch the surface of the wide variety of UI design resources available, we invite you to share yours in the comments.
Is “Hey, it’s for work!” the new “I read it for the articles”?
According to this infographic, based on data from Harris Interactive, lots of us are watching online videos at work — and a good deal of them aren’t work-related.
The 3% who are watching porn probably isn’t surprising (and is most likely under-reported), but 4% are watching feature films? As Jerry Seinfeld might ask, “Who are these people?”
via Online Video at Work: Here’s What You’re Watching [INFOGRAPHIC].
Daily Deals sites are attracting millions of customers. It’s a lively marketplace with hundreds of companies competing for a limited number of users and businesses willing to give them a try.
How lively? It’s hot. According to researchers at Lab42, there are more than 660 deals sites online today. But is this sustainable? Certainly not all those sites will survive. Some of us here at Mashable are questioning whether the Daily Deals era is coming to a close.
Bump, the app that makes it simple to exchange information between mobile devices, has surpassed 10 million active users and 50 million downloads.
The company’s technology allows two users to “bump” their phones and exchange contact information. With the iOS and Android apps, users can also friend or follow each other on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. And late last year, the company introduced a way to share music by bumping.
via Bump Hits 50 Million Downloads; What’s Being Shared? [INFOGRAPHIC].
The new suite of tools allow you to manipulate your videos in a number of ways including color correction, image stabilization, music audio track switching, and it offers a nice menu of filters to enhance the look of your videos.
via YouTube’s new effects menu makes everyone a video editor | DVICE.