Apple Store Down for Updates

The Apple Store is currently down, which could signal that new Apple products are about to be launched.
The sign on the Store says “We’re busy updating the Apple Store for you and will be back soon.”
It’s interesting to note that the “Store Down” sign has changed significantly from the sign Apple used in the past couple of years. Furthermore, the sign seems to be slightly crooked — somewhat odd for Apple, a company known for perfectionism.
Recent rumors pointed to an update to Apple’s MacBook lineup. A couple of weeks ago, we heard that the new 15-inch MacBook might be a significant departure from the current design, with a retina display and an ultra-thin profile.
Another likely culprit for the store being down, however, is the Nest Learning Thermostat, which appeared in the store earlier today. Also, it’s possible that Apple is simply fixing technical glitches with the Store.
After the store comes back up, we’ll let you know if we see any changes.

10:58 by Robert dawne · 1

4 Facebook Features Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore

Justyn Howard is the CEO of Sprout Social, a social media management platform that empowers leading companies to effectively manage their social channels. Follow him on Twitter @justyn and read his blog at SproutInsights.
If you have a brand or a business to market chances are you’re using a social media management application to monitor online mentions, schedule updates, and generate reports. But if you really want to be an effective marketer, you need to develop a deeper understanding of which networks are most vital to your company, and what network features are key. In Facebook’s case, we’re talking about some powerful community management components that are unmatched by its competitors, and often overlooked by marketing pros. Here are the four that simply can’t be ignored.

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1. Activity Log

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Facebook’s activity log is like a Facebook Timeline for every interaction that fans have with your page. It also includes updates you’ve made, like comments or Facebook Questions. What makes this tool unique and powerful is that it offers an archive of your Facebook interactions that you can review at any time. This is useful for tracking how well you’re following up and engaging with fans, and what kind of feedback you’re getting from them during specific events.

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2. Demographic Targeting

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The manage tab in Facebook Page’s Admin Panel allows you to publish updates to specific demographic groups. The feature isn’t as robust as it should be, but it lets you reach out to people who, for example, speak a certain language. This is useful if your page serves audiences in different countries.
Netflix is a prime example. Due to the nature of its content licensing deals, the site offers different movie and TV-show libraries in the United States than it does in Canada. If the Netflix page administrator wants to announce a new movie that’s only available in one country, he or she can hide that update from fans in the other. Other options include making a post completely invisible to people outside of a certain location, or to people under a certain age.

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3.Twitter Linking

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Cross-promoting between social networks is a critical component of any social media marketing strategy. Facebook recognizes this, which is why it offers the ability to link your Facebook page to Twitter for the purpose of publishing updates to both sites.
The one caveat is that the implementation here is slanted pretty heavily towards promoting Facebook. This means tweets that originate from your Facebook page always have a link back to Facebook. If that’s not your thing, you can supplement with a third-party tool.

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4. Smart Moderation

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You probably already know how to moderate individual comments on Facebook, but you can also dive into your Facebook Page’s settings and add specific terms you want to automatically block. While it’s better to allow open conversation on your Facebook page — customers don’t like to be censored — there will be specific situations that call for more control. This tool will give you that.

18:27 by Robert dawne · 0

Firefox 10 Is Here. Is it Worth Your Time?

It’s version 10. Do you know where your Firefox is?
Yes, rev up your update engines. Firefox 10 — the latest in a dizzying series of upgrades — is now available for your browsing pleasure.
This is Mozilla’s seventh major browser release in the last 10 months. After releasing Firefox 4 in March 2011, Mozilla adopted a rapid release schedule similar to the cycle Google employs with its Chrome browser.
The new schedule means that users get a new version of Firefox every six weeks, rather than every two to three years.
Like other recent releases, Firefox 10 focuses on under-the-hood enhancements and bug fixes, rather than scads of new features or changes to the user interface.
Still, Mozilla has added some new front-facing features to Firefox 10, including improvements to add-on compatibility and built-in developer tools.
Firefox now automatically marks add-ons as compatible with the browser without requiring add-on developers to code support by hand. The browser also automatically checks for add-on updates every 24 hours.
As for the developer tools, Firefox 10 now includes a tightly-integrated set of CSS, HTML and DOM inspectors. This allows web developers to quickly zero in on any portion of a live (or locally hosted) web page and enable real-time previewing.
If you’re familiar with WebKit’s Web Inspector in Safari and Chrome, you’ll feel right at home with Firefox 10′s tool suite. It won’t replace add-ons like Firebug for advanced developers, but it’s a great lightweight, built-in option.

Below is a video that Mozilla created to show off the new developer tools in Firefox 10:


When Firefox announced its decision to switch to a more frequent update cycle, some enterprise users criticized Mozilla, pointing out that frequent browser updates are untenable for organizations that need to follow strict rules for basic software updates.
With Firefox 10, Mozilla is offering those users access to what it calls “Firefox ESR,” or Extended Support Release. Organizations that use Firefox ESR will get support and updates for 42 weeks, rather than the standard six. Security updates will still be pushed out on schedule.

13:25 by Robert dawne · 1