On October 7th, 2003, Nokia made a splash as it attempted to challenge Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld gaming market. Its entry was the N-Gage, a dual mobile phone and gaming system. However, the funny look it had when you used it as a phone (”taco phone” was a popular comparison), as well a weaker game library doomed it from the start.

Today, Nokia announced that it is ending the N-Gage line of phones and games, instead opting to push forward its gaming agenda via the Ovi app store.

The move was inevitable, especially as Apple has turned the iPhone into a gaming powerhouse, but we’re still going to miss making fun of Nokia’s Taco Phone. This is our farewell to the N-Gage, which had the right idea but the wrong execution.

Image credit: Mushroom and Rooster via Flickr

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Reviews: Flickr

Tags: apple, gaming, N-Gage, Nokia, ovi

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Kapitall

Quick Pitch: Kapitall is a revolutionary new online investing platform designed to transform the investing experience for the next generation of investors.

Genius Idea: Kapitall is an investing platform that takes a visualized, stylized approach to organizing data and information. You can learn about investing and see charts and data from different companies in a very attractive and easy to use interface.

The team behind Kapitall come from companies like THQ, Bloomberg and Apple. If you look at how the Kapitall site works and operates, you can see bits and pieces of those companies’ styles throughout the product. Interestingly enough, Kapitall takes a video game approach to investing.

After you sign up for an account (which is free), you enter to the Playground, which features stocks, mutual funds and portfolios that you either have stock in or are interested in. You can move tiles around the screen as well as drag and drop items to and from the Playground.

Double clicking on a company brings up its profile. You can view the latest news, current trading data and generate reports comparing the company against others in its sector. In addition to being a good investment research tool, Kapitall also has an extensive learning library that teaches the basics of investing.

Currently, you can only invest money in practice portfolios (thus, it’s like an online version of those mock stock market games you might have played in high school economics), but in the future you’ll be able to make real trades through the system.

What make Kapitall unique is that it is a very visual way of getting financial information and organizing data. If the X-Box had a stock program, it would look like Kapitall. We await the day when we can make actual investments through Kapitall.

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Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

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BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

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Reviews: PHP

Tags: investments, kapitall, stock, stock trading

Last week, war erupted between tech giants Microsoft and Apple as the Windows maker celebrated the launched of its newest baby: Windows 7. But while Windows 7 seems to have been a hit, Apple fired back with its own ad campaign.

With Microsoft and Apple making the headlines, we thought it was appropriate to make them the subject of this week’s Web Faceoff, our weekly series where we pit two popular web or tech apps and letting you, the readers, choose the victor. This week’s battle-for-the-ages was between none other than the two hottest OSes on the market: Microsoft Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

The voting and the comments were heated. Over 7000 votes were cast with less than 400 votes separating to the two operating systems. But in the end, Microsoft was able to outlast the Apple assault. With 3632 votes (50%), Windows 7 defeated Snow Leopard’s 3278 votes (45%). 357 of you (5%) voted that the battle was dead even.

Who would win in a fight: Microsoft Windows 7 or Mac OS X Snow Leopard?(survey)

While Microsoft can declare victory in this battle, the war clearly isn’t over. There will be more skirmishes between Apple and Microsoft, and we’ll bring them to you in future web faceoffs. Don’t forget to tune in next Monday for the next epic web battle.

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Web Faceoff: Overall Results

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Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
- Wordpress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: Wordpress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

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Reviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress

Tags: apple, microsoft, OS, poll, Snow Leopard, web faceoff, Windows 7

Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. We’re particularly inspired by those brands that are engaging with our readers as part of our Twitter Brand Sponsors program: Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!

Advertise with us and get noticed.

Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers, and many more. You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition to thank you as our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card.

This week, our valued sponsors are Meijer, Streaming Media West, Grasshopper, MOTOBLUR, Que Publishing, PayPal X Innovate 2009, Conduit, Clickatell, Influxis, EdgeCast, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, Sun Startup Essentials, and Eventbrite.

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Augmented reality meets social media on the Meijer Halloween “Transform Yourself in 3D” site. Using your computer’s webcam, you can create a scary or silly 3-D video of yourself in a variety of masks and voices, then share them with your friends in email, on Twitter or Facebook. Meijer is a 190-store mid-western retail chain. They’ll even send you a webcam for only $5 if you don’t have one, with free shipping.

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Attended by more than 2,500 executives last year, Streaming Media West is the only show that covers both the business of online video and the technology of streaming, downloading, Webcasting, Internet TV, IPTV, and mobile video. Covering both corporate and consumer business, technology, and content issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast, and education markets, Streaming Media West is about more than just streaming! Go to streamingmedia.com/west to secure your free pass or discounted conference sessions access. Go to streamingmedia.com for future conference dates and locations.

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Sound more professional and stay connected with Grasshopper, the Virtual Phone System designed for entrepreneurs. Grasshopper works just like a traditional phone system, but requires no hardware to purchase – it’s all managed online or by phone. Callers reach you whether you’re in the office, on your cell, or at home.

Get a toll free or local number, create extensions for employees, forward calls, get voicemails via email, and more – starting at only $9.95 a month.

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MOTOBLUR from Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all and serves it up on a customizable home screen and integrates it through the phone. Plus, with MOTOBLUR you have peace of mind, because all of your info is backed up and secure. Discover MOTOBLUR on Motorola CLIQ available at T-Mobile. It’s time to spend less time managing life and more time living it.

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Que Publishing is an imprint of Pearson Technology Group (PTG), the world’s largest provider of consumer and professional computer, information technology, engineering and reference content. Pearson Technology Group is a part of Pearson Education, (NYSE: PSO), the world’s leading education and professional publisher.

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SynergyChat.com is a cloud based video chat, video email and video conference application. All services are browser based, no software required. You can video chat face to face, send video email messages, video conference with up to nine people simultaneously and much more. Service usage is unlimited. Installs on any website in minutes with a custom javascript button. Currently open for free beta signups.

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PayPal X Innovate 2009 is PayPal’s first dedicated developer conference. Here you’ll have the absolute inside track on how to capitalize on all of PayPal’s products. Learn from hands on tutorials about PayPal APIs and listen to keynote from industry luminaries including Tim O’Reilly and see showcase of cool developers. Get 50% off if you register with code MASH or join us at $50 if you are a student.

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The Conduit On-Demand Marketing Platform offers web publishers of all sizes various solutions, including creating and publishing a branded community toolbar, sending your community desktop alerts, sharing and distributing content from the Conduit Marketplace, and much more. The platform is free, easy-to-use and very powerful, and is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers. Anything you can put on a website can also be deployed on a community toolbar and offered to your users wherever they are on the web, including: your logo, content, gadgets, feeds, social media tools, chat windows, games, services, links, and more. Every community toolbar also comes complete with a search-box powered by Google, to ensure your users have easy access to the most popular search on the web. Click here for more information on how to set up your own community toolbar, send desktop alerts, and find cool content and gadgets – for FREE!

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Clickatell offers bulk sms and mobile marketing solutions. Over 700 networks and over 200 countries covered.

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Influxis is an official Adobe hosting partner and resource for the Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server. Influxis provides Flash hosting plans for all levels of use – beginner to enterprise. With a reputation for exceptional customer service, Influxis provides an extremely reliable international network of FMS servers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

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EdgeCast Networks offers a superior, cost-effective, global content delivery service that gives our customers competitive advantage in the delivery of digital media. Our world-class content delivery platform provides customers the cost benefits and flexibility of controlling their own content delivery network while liberating them from ISP contracts, capital investments and operational hassles.

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BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development, and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers, and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help.

For more information, or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.

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MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use email marketing service. You design, me deliver.

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The Sun Startup Essentials program extends to startups all the benefits of our program; benefits designed to get startups sailing to success with the right IT infrastructure. These include introductions to interested investors; discounted servers, storage and desktops; open source software such as MySQL; discounted web hosting; and free technical support and advice from Sun engineers.

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Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

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Additionally, thanks to the following partners for making Mashable happen:

Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing our My Mashable social network and W3 EDGE for the development and maintenance of Mashable.com

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Mashable would also like to thank AttentionPR for their PR support. AttentionPR proves that PR today is measurable, transparent, and yes, social. Learn more about AttentionPR.

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Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why.

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ConcentricSky offers web development and strategic consulting services with a focus on emerging technologies such as Social Media and iPhone Apps. From simple websites to integrated web applications, we deliver innovative solutions that exceed your expectations – not your budget.

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We can get your name out there.

Contact us for more information about supporting Mashable’s growth and development. Alternatively, visit our advertise section for more details about:

-Competitive direct ad sales
-Sponsorship Opportunities for Events and other channels
-Sponsored giveaways and contests
-Custom ad deals and partnerships

CPM-based advertising is available through our partner, Federated Media, but if you contact us directly, you’ll be entitled to exclusive unpublished discounts.

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Reviews: Facebook, Firefox, Gmail, Google, Internet Explorer, Mashable, MySpace, Safari, The Conduit, Twitter

Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Norman Bates, and Jon & Kate are just some of Hollywood’s most horrifying characters. One of the best things about Halloween is that it’s a perfect opportunity to grab some friends and settle in for a good old fashioned scare in front of the TV, or increasingly, the computer monitor.

Although we still think the cineplex is the best way to get your big-league scare-on, the Internet is a full-on treasure-trove of excellent scary content. While it’s true you can buy and download movies online, more and more often, streaming services are offering ways for film fans to tune in to great content for free.

Here are ten of our favorite horror movies to watch for free online this Halloween. Some of these services might only work in the US but if you know of any great content accessible to international fans, please let us know in the comments (legal content, only, please!).

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1. Dawn of the Dead (2004 version)

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Although most horror remakes pale in comparison to the original, Zack Snyder’s remake of the George Romero classic actually works pretty well. The film offers good scares and great effects and while it doesn’t totally capture Romero’s awesomeness (and, really, what would?), it’s a very solid horror flick.

You can watch “Dawn of the Dead” on Hulu and check out the trailer below:

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2. Night of the Living Dead

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George Romero’s groundbreaking 1968 black and white horror film, “Night of the Living Dead” revolutionized the horror industry and started the whole wave of splatter films that would come to define horror in the 1970s. It’s a classic that still holds up today (even if we are now accustomed to bigger scares) and features Romero’s trademark humor and wit.

The film is in the public domain, thanks to the original distributor’s failure to include copyright marks on the film prints. As such, you can download and watch the film for free at the Internet Archive.

Check out the trailer:

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3. The Exorcism of Emily Rose

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2005’s “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” isn’t a straight horror film, but it does have some great seat-jumping moments. Backed by a stellar cast (Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, and Jennifer Carpenter), the film is very engaging. The fact that it was inspired by a true story adds a whole other dimension to the horror.

You can watch the film for free on Hulu and check out the trailer below:

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4. Bram Stoker’s Dracula

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Although some might argue that “The Godfather Part III” is Francis Ford Coppola’s most scary film, the intentional scares are present in 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” The most successful film adaptation of the classic Dracula story to date, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, and Gary Oldman.

You can watch the film on Hulu and see the trailer here:

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5. The Blob

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If you like campy, gory, B-movie horror, you need to check out Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of “The Blob.” With a tagline like “Terror Has No Shape” you know you are in for some good, cheesy, horror fun.

You can watch the film for free at Crackle.com and check out the trailer here:

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6. Ghostbusters

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OK, so “Ghostbusters” really isn’t what you would call a horror film, but it has ghosts and ooze and Bill Murray. Plus, they always played the theme song during the Halloween Parade at my elementary school. While it may not technically be horror, it is a Halloween tradition.

You can watch the hit movie online at Crackle.com and check out the trailer here:

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7. The House on Haunted Hill

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B-movie horror legend Vincent Price stars in the 1959 classic, “The House on Haunted Hill.” It’s about an eccentric millionaire who invites five people to his haunted house party. If they can stay the night, they get $10,000.00. Of course, as the night progresses, people get trapped and die. Pure B-movie gold.

You can watch the film on YouTube and check out the trailer here:

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8. The Last Man on Earth

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Another Vincent Price film, “The Last Man on Earth” is about a man who is the sole survivor of a deadly plague. However, he’s not as alone as he thinks — at night the bodies of the dead rise up, thirsty for his blood! The film was remade as “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston, but the original Vincent Price version is better.

It’s also in the public domain, so you can download it for free at Archive.org and watch the trailer here:

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9. Nosferatu

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Before Coppola’s “Dracula” adaptation — heck, before any adaptation — was the 1922 silent film “Nosferatu.” It’s a cinematic classic and still very eerie, despite being such an early film. It’s a must-watch for any fan of horror, or film in general.

You can watch it for free at Archive.org and see the trailer here:

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10. Alfred Hitchcock Presents

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Alfred Hitchcock is the quintessential master of suspense and his films like “Psycho” and “The Birds” continue to offer scares and thrills today. However, because he is so renown, most of his content is only available for purchase. However, you can still watch installments of his excellent TV show “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” on Hulu.

Check out this preview here:

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Your Favorites

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What are some of your favorite horror films available online for free? Let us know!

In the mood for more Halloween goodness? Check out our list of social media-themed Halloween pumpkin carvings or our post on Internet-meme inspired Halloween costumes.

Tags: crackcle.com, Halloween, horror movies, hulu, youtube

Today the Bing team announced some new updates to Bing for mobile. Although m.bing.com has always offered a mobile-optimized way to do local searches and view maps, the updates integrate some of Bing’s killer features.

Some of the new features include live NFL stats, flight status searches, and an optimized Bing for touch devices like the iPhone, the Zune HD and the T-Mobile G1.

Bing has always included the ability to do local searches from its mobile site (something Google added last month) and now they are bringing some real-time data to the mobile site as well.

For instance, if you type in an NFL player or team name into the search bar, you’ll get back stats or see upcoming games. If a game is in progress, you can get real-time updates on plays. The NFL feature is only available in the US, but it’s a pretty cool way of getting real-time info quickly. You can also search for an airline and flight number and get the latest departure and landing times.

Perhaps the biggest overhaul is for touch devices — like the iPhone or the ZuneHD. Bing mobile now has an optimized interface that is more graphically enhanced than the standard site and also offers some nice touch features for browsing through content.

What really stood out to me, however, was just how much better Bing’s results for certain content looked when formatted for mobile as compared to Google. For instance, if I search for movie times in both search engines on my iPhone, I’ll get mobile-formatted results from both devices. However, if I want to see upcoming times for specific films, the experience is totally different.

Look at this image to see what I mean:

Google hasn’t optimized its actual time showcase for the mobile browser, meaning I have to zoom and scroll in order to see what’s going on. The Bing interface is much much nicer.

The only real problem with Bing for mobile is that most mobile browsers don’t offer any way to change the default search engine. I might prefer to use Bing rather than Google – but on my iPhone, I have to go to the site every time, rather than having access in the search bar.

Still, by bringing some of its best features to mobile, Bing might be able to carve out a niche by offering a better experience than Google. What do you think of Bing for mobile?

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Reviews: Bing, Google, iPhone

Tags: bing, bing for mobile, Google, iphone

It appears that the crazy Miley Cyrus fan who created yesterday’s 15 minutes of Internet meme Miley Save Fuzzy is going to be put to the test.

In case you missed it, in a somewhat disturbing blog post, the site’s creator says he’ll kill his cat “Fuzzy” on November 16th if Miley Cyrus doesn’t return to Twitter.

However, Cyrus, who deleted her account earlier this month, shows no signs of returning. In fact, she reportedly told a radio station this morning that she thinks “everyone should leave Twitter … I think Twitter should just be banned from this universe.”

The singer/actress then moved into Ted Stevens territory, declaring “I’m not a big fan of the Internet anymore.” Perhaps, but I’m not completely buying it. I think that maybe Cyrus realizes that by declaring her dislike of technology she’ll only help drive the sound bite culture that creates online buzz for celebrities.

In any event, for the love of Fuzzy, come back Miley!

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Reviews: Twitter

Tags: miley cyrus, twitter

The face of the Internet is about to change, and its potential impact on international Internet use cannot be understated.

Earlier today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which governs domains, registrations, Internet Protocol addresses, and many other aspects of the net, voted to approve a fast-track process for implementing non-Latin domain names by early to mid 2010.

This means that by next year, you could be seeing domains in Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and dozens of other non-Latin languages.

The new domains, which ICANN terms “Internationalized Domain Names” or IDNs, has been something the organization has discussed for several years, but now IDNs have been placed on a fast track process, beginning November 16th. It will involve around 100 new, international characters on top of the traditional 26-character English alphabet.

ICANN even takes the time to explain the impact of IDNs with a 7:10 video. In it, people from nations across (along with ICANN President Rod Beckstrom) the world discuss how IDNs will help them use localized keyboards and local email addresses. It’s a bit silly, but it really nails the key point: it’s time to expand domains to the native languages of over half the world. The video is below:

Tags: ICANN, IDN, internet

Just about every big brand seemingly has a Twitter presence at this point, but which are generating the most buzz? TweetedBrands provides a simple answer to the question, by looking at the brands receiving the most mentions over the past 24 hours.

Not surprisingly, Twitter tops the list, and in fact, the first 9 brands listed are all Internet or tech related products. This makes sense – you’re a lot more likely to tweet about the various devices and services you’re using throughout the day than the brand of shoes you put on in the morning (though Nike does rank #36).

In that same vein, media companies have a strong representation on the list – Fox is #10, CNN is #11, and Mashable is #13 as of this afternoon. These companies clearly benefit from publishing content – both on TV and the Web – that gets tweeted about. Here’s the full list:

As such, TweetedBrands is a fairly superficial measurement of which brands are hottest, but it’s a simple way to see who’s getting the most buzz at any given point in time and perhaps a tool for some healthy competition as brands who deal in the same space compare rankings.

For more on how to measure brand performance on Twitter and other social media tools, check out our recent feature “HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI.”

(Photo Courtesy of DominusVobiscum on Flickr)

[via thenextweb]

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Reviews: Flickr, Mashable, Twitter

Tags: social media, twitter

Print might be in trouble, but Esquire magazine won’t be going gently into that good night. The December issue of the magazine will feature augmented reality pages that will come alive when displayed in front of a webcam.

Augmented reality is a trend and phenomenon we’re starting to see more and more uses of across the web. In March, GE played with augmented reality while showing off its Smart Grid technology. Earlier this month, musician John Mayer released an augmented reality enhanced music video. The Disney.com iPhone app that was released earlier this week also utilizes some AR features.

Esquire’s use of the technology seems pretty brilliant because the experience alone makes it worth buying a copy of the magazine at the newsstand. The cover, which will feature actor Robert Downey Jr., will emerge on the screen in 3D and feature flying text and images that animate based on how the magazine is positioned.

Within the magazine a half-dozen pages will feature AR technology, as well as two ads from Lexus, who helped offset some of the costs of creating the issue. This isn’t the first time Esquire has decided to integrate digital technologies into its print product. Last year, the 75th anniversary issue of the magazine featured digital e-ink on its cover.

Editor-in-Chief commented on Esquire’s interest in pursuing digital technologies to the Associated Press:

“I got so sick of people talking about old media versus new media. I wanted to prove that print is still kind of cool. I think of it as kind of our job to show people the strength of our medium.”

It’s a strategy that might be paying off. Unlike most print publications, subscription and newsstand sales have actually increased (although ad pages are down).

If these sorts of digital strategies can keep advertisers and readers interested is still unknown. The December issue of Esquire goes on sale on November 7. What do you think about integrating digital technologies with physical print publications? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: Augmented Reality, esquire, magazines, media