How to master the clickworthy email subject line

Janet Choi is the Marketing Manager at Customer.io. This post originally appeared on the Customer.io blog. Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton and author of the bestseller Give and Take, is a busy guy. Yet he’s incredibly responsive to email. In fact, he’s famous for his inbox superpowers, described in a New York Times profile as someone who doesn’t say no in the face of hundreds of emails a day and is “more reliable than Google and almost as fast.” After the article came out, Grant received a flood of emails from thousands of strangers. When he realized that he…



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11 effective strategies for hiring top tech talent

Technology has become an essential department for any business. And as the rise of technology continues to evolve, the competition for businesses to secure strong talent will become even more cutthroat than it already is. So, how does your business stand out from the crowd? I asked 11 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) community the following: Competition for tech talent remains fierce. What is the most effective strategy you’ve used for publicizing your open tech position? Their best answers are below: 1. Offer Face Time With Your Current Tech Team We frequently send our current team to networking…



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This week’s best offers from TNW Deals

Another hot week with great deals! Check out the most popular deals from this week below! Code Black Drone w/ HD Camera Thursday was the last day to “Pre-Order” the Limited Edition Code Black Drone, but the good news is it’s now shipping in 1-2 weeks for US customers and just 2-3 weeks internationally. Better yet, it’s also now available with a Crash Pack including extra motors, blades, and more for rookie pilots. The drone is a BLAST to fly, and the on-bard HD camera lets you take sweet footage from amazing vantage points. The Crash Pack will keep you…



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How to stop checking your phone like an addict

Max Ogles is the author of Boost: Create Good Habits Using Psychology and Technology and he writes at MaxOgles.com about behavior change, psychology, and technology. Sign up to receive his free app guide, ‘117 Apps to Help You Create Good Habits,’ or receive free updates about his latest essays. On December 16, 2013, a Taiwanese tourist was walking along St. Kilda pier in Melbourne, Australia. The pier offers a beautiful scenic view of the ocean, inviting tourists to snap photos to share with friends. As expected, this female tourist had her phone out too, except she wasn’t saving precious memories…



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Check out renderings of Google’s cool new campus of movable structures

Apple has its spaceship, so it’s only fitting that Google has its own updated office space proposal. But instead of a building that looks like it could launch at any moment, Google is proposing movable structures. Google submitted plans to redevelop four sites to the Mountain View city council. The proposal includes a plan to increase its office space square footage with sites that are covered in large translucent canopies. The actual “buildings” will be lightweight structures that can be moved as needs arise. The canopies would allow air and light in, but would be climate controlled. Google is hoping…



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Last Chance to get the Name Your Own Price Learn To Design Bundle – ends Saturday

If you’re serious about learning to design for web and mobile platforms, there’s never been a better time to get started: pay what you want for eight great courses to learn responsive web design, grasp the fundamentals of user experience design, and master the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver, with over 80 hours of video tutorials from professional instructors. But get it now, because this unbelievable offer ends on Saturday! This bundle includes lifetime access to all 8 courses, with over 800 lectures that you can watch and learn at your own pace online at Udemy.…



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Lenovo promises all its future PCs will be bloatware-free in wake of Superfish ordeal

Bloatware is the bane of PC buyers everywhere, but the super-fishy software Lenovo shipped on recent laptops was a particularly egregious oversight. In the wake of terrible PR week and much criticism, Lenovo has now promised to significantly reduce preloaded software. In a statement, the company said: We are starting immediately, and by the time we launch our Windows 10 products, our standard image will only include the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well (for example, when we include unique hardware in our devices, like a 3D camera), security software and Lenovo applications. The…



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Vimeo for iOS can now stream to your Chromecast

Google’s Chromecast is useful, but only insofar as applications actually support it. Today Vimeo is finally adding itself to the Chromecast party, but its currently an iOS-only affair. In order to start streaming, just open a video in fullscreen mode and tap on the Chromecast icon. Once you begin,, you can browse other content on the app while the video plays, should you want to add more content to your queue. No word on Android support yet, but Vimeo says it’s working on bringing Chromecast streaming to additional devices in the future. You can download the update from the iOS…



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60,000 accounts deleted from QQ, WeChat, Weibo and others ahead of new username regulations

Some of China’s most popular social media sites deleted more than 60,000 accounts in the last 24 hours because they did not conform to the strict new regulations due to be put in place on Sunday. Reuters reported that the country’s top social networks – QQ, Tencent’s WeChat and Sina Weibo - carried out the cleanup after China’s State Internet Information Office (SIIO) announced that new regulations will come into effect. The new rules ban the use of certain nicknames online, including parody accounts or accounts that are impersonating public figures or any username that appears to be fraudulent, violent…



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TalkTalk’s systems breached, subscribers’ info stolen and used in scams

UK-based phone, TV and broadband service provider TalkTalk confirmed today that its networks were breached last December. The company said that users’ personal data — including names, addresses, phone numbers and TalkTalk account numbers — was stolen. A TalkTalk spokesperson said: “At the end of last year, we saw an increase in malicious scammers preying on our customers. In a small number of cases, customers told us that the criminals were quoting their TalkTalk account number as well as their phone number. As part of our ongoing approach to security we continually test our systems and processes and following further…



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Apple is being sued again by the same company that got half a billion dollars in its last lawsuit

Apple is being sued for the second time by Texas-based patent holder Smartflash LLC for infringing the same patents brought up in the last case. The difference this time around is that it involves the use of Smartflash’s technology in newer devices launched after the original case went to trial, reports Reuters. The new complaint was filed on Wednesday in the same court in the city of Tyler, where Apple was ordered to pay nearly $533 million for infringing Smartflash’s patents. The company claims that the previous case did not cover Apple’s use of its technology in recent devices like…



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Microsoft launches an Android tablet keyboard for Excel users

Microsoft Garage, the company’s project to surface tech experiments by its employees, has unveiled yet another Android app. This time around, it’s a keyboard optimized for use with Microsoft Excel on tablets. The layout in Keyboard for Excel includes the 10-key numpad that is common on full-size keyboards and is essential for entering numerical data quickly. It also features a Tab button for navigating across columns, as well as prominent buttons with frequently used Excel operators. The keyboard lacks a few features we now take for granted, such as auto-correction and gesture-based typing. Plus, it only works on tablets —…



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Facebook now allows custom gender options

Facebook now allows its users to enter any term they want to describe their gender, and also indicate how they’d like to be addressed. The social network previously offered a list of gender identities to choose from, but now allows users to add their own preferred terms. A statement from Facebook Diversity explains, “We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way.” The new option is available to everyone who uses Facebook in US English. To change it, visit your own…



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TNW Deals’ Smart Home Roundup

Experience the future of comfortable living today, with TNW Deals’ range of smart products for the home. Enjoy unparalleled convenience, novel new functionality — and great prices on everything! $10 Off – ilumi LED Smartbulb Control your indoor lighting like never before, to suit every mood and occasion! The ilumi LED Smartbulb can light up your rooms in just about any color you can think of, pulse to the beat of music at your party and even wake you up with a soft glow whenever you need it to. As if that wasn’t enough, the ilumi Smartbulb is 5x more…



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Google merges its European divisions and promises new digital training hub

Google has merged its two European regional operations, as it attempts to deal with challenges from regulators. The HQ will remain in Dublin and the changes aren’t expected to result in job losses. he company is combining its northern and western European division with the unit that covers eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa to form one organization. The new setup will be led by Matt Brittin, the former head of Google’s northern and western Europe operations. Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, who had been in charge of southern and eastern Europe, is moving to lead commercial partnerships. Google…



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Booking Now for iOS comes to Europe with the promise of simplifying last-minute accommodation booking

Booking.com has today announced the launch of its Booking Now app for iOS users in the UK, following its launch in the US and Canada in January. Available to download from the App Store now, the updated Booking Now app lets travelers book last-minute accommodation in just two taps. More than simplicity though, it also offers a tailored booking experience that personalizes real-time search to find properties that match the user’s “unique traveller profile,” the company said. More bookings equal more personalized matches. As you’re swiping your way around the available matches and options, any that particularly stand out can…



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Booking Now for iOS comes to Europe with the promise of simplifying last-minute accommodation booking

Booking.com has today announced the launch of its Booking Now app for iOS users in the UK, following its launch in the US and Canada in January. Available to download from the App Store now, the updated Booking Now app lets travelers book last-minute accommodation in just two taps. More than simplicity though, it also offers a tailored booking experience that personalizes real-time search to find properties that match the user’s “unique traveller profile,” the company said. More bookings equal more personalized matches. As you’re swiping your way around the available matches and options, any that particularly stand out can…



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Messaging service Viber brings its mobile games to users worldwide

Mobile messaging app Viber is bringing its games to users across the globe today. The company initially launched three titles for iOS and Android in a handful of countries in December. Viber Candy Mania, Viber Pop and Wild Luck Casino allow players to connect with others on the messaging service to play together, track scores, show off achievements and send gifts. The first two titles are based on Viber sticker characters and feature puzzles and adventure, while Wild Luck Casino gives players a chance to win prizes and coins in a virtual game of slots. Viber’s games also feature in-app…



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UberX rides are free in Seoul for a week, but to what end?

Uber has turned off fares this week for its UberX rides in the South Korean capital of Seoul, where the local government has been looking to ban the ride-sharing service since last July. The offer allows passengers to take 30 rides costing up to $27 (KRW 30,000) for free by March 3. The move is an effort to keep drivers out of trouble, as there’s now a city-wide anti-ride-sharing ordinance that rewards people for reporting Uber drivers to local authorities. Keeping its service free helps Uber stay off the radar — but it seems like a temporary solution to a…



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LG Watch Urbane LTE runs a proprietary OS and lets you make calls without a phone

Ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show, LG has unveiled an LTE variant of its fashionable Watch Urbane that will support calls over VoLTE without a phone, as well as NFC payments. Unlike the Android Wear-based original, the LG Watch Urbane LTE will feature a proprietary OS that the company says is not webOS, which runs its smart TVs. It also has a walkie-talkie feature for group voice chats as well as an SOS button to quickly place a call to your contacts in case of an emergency. It will also sport sensors for GPS and fitness tracking, as…



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Gmail adds Burmese language support

Google has announced today that Gmail now supports Burmese across its interface, bringing the service’s language count to 74. Gmail users in Myanmar will be able to choose between two virtual keyboards to allow for the various ways in which you can type in Burmese. The company launched translation support for Burmese in December, and is encouraging users to improve translated content in the Myanmar language with a translate-a-thon event this Saturday in the capital of Yangon. It’s interesting to see Google adding Web products for users in Myanmar, where only 10 percent of the population have a mobile device…



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You’re more likely to read this article because the headline contains the word ‘iPhone’

This post is brought to you by SimilarWeb: get insights for any website or app.

As technology become a larger part of modern society, so do the news content that compliment our futuristic lifestyles. For online publishers, securing high rankings in search results is an ever-present challenge. While there are many different strategies to achieve visibility, most are variations of two cornerstones: produce content that is either topical or timeless. Market intelligence company SimilarWeb undertook an analysis of traffic to five of the most popular business-focused journals – Business Insider, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Fast Company – to see which keywords were the top traffic drivers. On the number one spot? It’s…



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Gemalto admits it was hacked, but denies the NSA and GCHQ got its encryption keys

Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto says its networks were “probably” hacked, but that encryption keys were not compromised. It made the statement while sharing the findings of its internal investigation into claims its systems were breached by the NSA and GCHQ. Gemalto said yesterday that it believes its SIM cards are secure. In its report today, it adds that it implemented a secure transfer system for SIM keys with mobile operators in 2010, and that the breach would most likely not have affected its operations. The company also says that even if the intelligence agencies had managed to steal these…



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Amazon begins publishing reader-nominated books, pre-orders open now

Amazon has begun accepting pre-orders for the first 10 titles discovered through Kindle Scout, the company’s platform that allows readers to vote for books it should publish under its digital banner Kindle Press. The 10 Kindle Press books, spanning genres from romance to mystery to science fiction to thriller, will be out on March 3. Here’s a list of the books to be released on the first run: G-1 by Rigel Carson A Highland Knight’s Desire by Amy Jarecki Eddie & Sunny by Stacey Cochran L.A. Sniper by Steve Gannon Pit Bulls vs. Aliens by Neal Wooten Royal Date by…



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Microsoft’s OneNote Staff Notebook for Education app enables school staff collaboration

Microsoft has launched a free tool to help teachers and school staff to collaborate more effectively on curriculum development, administrative duties and internal policies. OneNote Staff Notebook for Education lets education staff leaders — like principals or faculty heads — set up shared workspaces for teachers and administrators and enable them to organize and share internal information, event and meeting schedules, student progress, parent feedback, lesson plans and more. The service can be set up and synced using Office 365 or SharePoint 2013, and users can access all content on the OneNote note-taking app across desktops and mobile devices. The…



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LG’s Android Lollipop-based G Flex 2 rolling out today

LG announced today that its G Flex 2 smartphone will begin to roll out to major carriers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore. The device will next become available in other key markets in North and South America, Europe and Asia in the weeks following the Mobile World Congress trade show, which kicks off on March 2. We’ll probably hear about prices and availability from carriers soon too. To recap, the 4G LTE-capable G Flex 2 features a 5.5-inch Full HD display in a curved body with a self-healing back cover. It runs Android Lollipop and…



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Apple ordered to pay $533 million for breaching gaming patents

A federal jury in Texas has ordered Apple to pay $532.9 million for infringing on patents held by Smartflash LLC, in software and games delivered through iTunes, reports Bloomberg. The plaintiff claimed that Apple infringed three patents related to “data storage and managing access through payment systems” and cited their use in apps like Game Circus LLC’s Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie. Game companies who used the same technologies settled out of court with Smartflash earlier. Apple said that it saw no reason to pay royalties on the price of a phone when the dispute was over a…



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Twitter is testing analytics on the Web for individual tweets

It looks like Twitter is experimenting with a new analytics feature on the Web; some users can now see statistics for individual tweets on their timeline. I’m able to access the analytics by clicking on a small bar graph button to the right of the favorites button. My colleagues, however, do not see the functionality yet. Once you click, you’ll be presented with information such as views, favorites and clickthroughs. Some other users spotted the new feature as as well: Oh nice, looks like Twitter is testing post by post analytics on the desktop version now. tip @techmeme http://ift.tt/1BnWqVO —…



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Facebook launches interactive design tool, Origami Live for iOS

Last year Facebook released Origami for OS X for designing interactive user interfaces. But, for some reason you couldn’t actually prototype those interfaces on iOS. Today, the company fixed that. Origami Live for iOS lets you run those prototypes on the device you’re probably building those interfaces for in the first place. Just plug your iOS device into your Mac to check your design. The suite also supports live editing so you can see changes on-the-fly. Facebook also updated Origami for OS X. Version 2.0 supports code exporting, gesture support, Sketch integration and presentation mode. You can download both tools…



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Last chance for 92% off the Full Stack Hacker Bundle – ends Wednesday

Ready to begin working on your great idea for the Web? Our latest offer will help you learn how to build and ship your project from scratch — no experience necessary. The Full Stack Hacker Bundle is an essential collection of courses that will teach you how to build beautiful sites and apps, run them on a cloud platform and manage your code base like a pro. This bundle contains eight key tutorials spanning over 70 hours of training that you can follow at your own pace. Start with fundamental Web programming languages and technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery,…



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Introducing Do — a new class of apps by IFTTT

Take action with the tap of a button. Do empowers you to create your own personalized button, camera, and notepad. Run Recipes right when you want to. Download Do Button, Do Camera, and Do Note for unprecedented control over the products and services you use every day. The IFTTT app you know and love is now called IF. Create powerful, automated connections with a simple statement — if this then that. :) —The IFTTT Team Share on Facebook  |   Share on Twitter  |   Share on Pinterest This newsletter was automatically sent to bloggggg1111.aaaa@blogger.com because you signed up for IFTTT with that address. To disable this communication, you can manage your email settings or unsubscribe from the IFTTT Newsletter.   IFTTT · 923 Market Street #400 · San Francisco, CA 94103

Ginger for Android now lets you switch apps without ever closing your keyboard

Ginger Software, makers of Ginger Keyboard for Android, has today released an update that makes it easy to quickly switch between different apps on your device, directly from your keyboard. Dubbed the Smart Bar, the feature allows you to add commonly used apps (like messaging, calendars, Evernote, Todoist, Keep, Slack, WhatsApp and more) to the bar at the top of your keyboard, thereby allowing you to quickly carry out certain functions. If you frequently find yourself having to make a to-do list from a text message, or wanting to add a calendar entry, you can now create a shortcut and…



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This company wants you to deliver other people’s packages and get free waffles

Here’s an unusual partnership – the Waffle House restaurant chain has hooked up with delivery startup Roadie. The deal will give drivers who drop packages at the chain, which has 1,750 locations open 24 hours a day, free food and drinks. Roadie’s app hooks people with parcels up with travelers who are headed in the right direction. The partnership with Waffle House means they can now designate one of the restaurant’s locations as a neutral meeting place. Drivers who make their deliveries there will get a free waffle and drink. It’s early days for Roadie but adding free waffles to…



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Sony’s 4G version of the Xperia E4 will arrive from April priced at $145

Sony has revealed the Xperia E4g, the latest addition to its smartphone line. It unveiled the Xperia E4 earlier this month, but it was notably missing 4G support. The new model is largely the same as the Xperia E4. As well as adding 4G connectivity, it offers a bump in speed with a 1.5Ghz quad-core processor versus the E4’s 1.3Ghz chip. As with the E4, the Xperia E4g has a 5-inch qHD display, 1GB RAM, a “two-day” 2,300mAh battery and a 5-megapixel snapper on the rear. You also get just 8GB of storage as standard. It’s due to launch in…



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Uber teams up with Safetipin to collect location safety data in New Delhi

Uber is partnering with mobile safety app Safetipin in New Delhi, India, to tag locations across the city with safety scores. The effort will allow citizens to understand their surroundings in terms of safety and inform government authorities with precise data for improved urban planning. The initiative will see Uber training drivers to work after dark with Safetipin’s auditors for five months, starting February 25, to capture photos and safety information for areas and roads across the city. Each image will be tagged with a safety score based on nine parameters: lighting, openness, visibility, security, walk path, crowd and gender…



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Google will soon begin blocking sexually explicit content on Blogger

For reasons as yet unknown, Google is cracking down on sexually explicit content on its blogging platform. Starting March 23, users will no longer be allowed to share sexually explicit images and video on Blogger. In addition, older blogs will featuring such content will be made private on that date. Private blogs can only be viewed by their owners and users with whom they’ve been shared. What’s strange is that Blogger’s content policy still maintains that it does “allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity. If your blog contains adult content, please…



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These are Apple’s new, diverse emoji

Apple has today delivered a new beta of OS X to developers that comes with a major new feature: diverse emoji. A tipster sent in these screenshots of the new emoji palette found in OS X 10.10.3. You can now click and hold on any emoji to change the skin tone. The same emoji are reportedly appearing in iOS 8.3 beta 2 as well. There’s also a bunch of new country flags.



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Lifetime subscription to iOSOnlineCourses’ iOS and Xcode Developer Training

Ready to build amazing apps for the latest Apple devices? iOSOnlineCourses has helped more than 15,000 budding programmers bring their ideas to life with quality tutorials for every skill level — and now it’s your turn to make waves in the App Store. iOSOnlineCourses has over 720 video lectures to take you through the ins and outs of coding in Swift, Objective-C, and building with WatchKit from scratch, so you can create apps and games for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. And that’s not all — you’ll also learn to monetize and market your apps, and get tips from expert…



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Google launches YouTube for Kids on Android and iOS

It was rumored for a while, but now it’s official. Google has launched YouTube Kids. The company says it’s been working with various teams across Google (and many parents) over the past year to make it easier for children and parents to interact. The new app is designed to be simpler for children featuring a brighter and bigger interface. As you might expect, the selection of videos on the platform is limited for what Google considers “appropriate for the whole family.” Some examples include DIY arts and crafts, math lessons and children’s shows. And a lot of train videos. The…



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Offline over the weekend? Read all the tech news you missed right here

Monday isn’t your friend. It doesn’t want to make you feel better about the week ahead. It doesn’t care how many more things you’d planned to do over the last two days that you didn’t get done. It’s here now, and it’s all business. Luckily for you, we’re a bit nicer than the abstract concept of ‘a Monday’, so we’ve put together all the news and features you missed from over the weekend in one handy list. We know, we’re just too kind. All you need to do is put your phone on silent, make yourself a drink and try…



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SoftBank’s emotion sensing robot Pepper will be sold at a loss

SoftBank unveiled its “emotionally aware” robot Pepper last summer. Now the device is finally going on sale for over $9,000 – less than it costs to build. The first production run of 300 robots will be available from Friday, with the company hoping developers will build apps for the automaton. The company has said that there will be approximately 100 apps available for Pepper when it launches on Friday. Rather than selling Pepper for a standalone fee, the network is offering a payment scheme. Buyers will be asked for $1,660 up front and $206 a month for three years. The…



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Fewer rules could mean more options for startup success in the Netherlands

I’ve always found it strange that a startup of just three founders and two employees has the same rules and regulations as a company that has existed for 20 years and has 10,000 employees. In The Netherlands, where I live and where our company was founded, there are many laws solely designed to protect employees that can be so restricting that they can lead a company to bankruptcy. Dutch tax laws can be confusing and limiting and cause problems for many starting companies. A few months ago I attended an event and met a Dutch politician, Kees Verhoeven, who was…



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LG aims for the mid-range smartphone segment with four new Lollipop devices

LG has announced a new line of mid-range smartphones running Android Lollipop that will be showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company aims to offer a balance of style, performance and price with its latest range, and it looks like they might get things right in 2015. The LG Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy will be available in 3G and 4G LTE variants, with metallic back covers to distinguish the latter models. The Magna features a 5-inch 720p display, and 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera, and is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz chipset with…



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18 incredibly useful tools for getting to know your audience better

This post originally appeared on the Buffer blog. You may have heard it said that understanding your audience on social media is one of the keys to success with social media marketing. (We may have even said it ourselves a time or two!) Makes a lot of sense. The more you know about your audience, the better you’ll be able to deliver the kind of helpful content and updates they’re interested in. So what might be the simplest, most efficient ways of understanding an audience? This is the part where I often get stuck: Implementing the good advice into my…



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The 10 commandments of typography

Charlotte Demonque is the community manager at FontYou, a Paris-based online co-creation platform dedicated to typography. This post originally appeared on the FontYou blog, and has been adapted with permission. With millions of beautiful typefaces scattering the Web, we felt it was time to lay down the rules on what makes typography great, and how to use them effectively. From graphic design pros to new creatives, here are our 10 commandments for making the best out of typography. 1. You shall not deform There are so many font families with several weights and styles, so why do some of you…



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Oscar Pop! The 2015 best picture nominees in Pop Art poster style

Jordan Roland is a staff designer and illustrator for the Shutterstock blog. This post was originally published on the Shutterstock blog and has been reprinted with permission. With days to go before the 87th Annual Academy Awards, it’s time for what’s become an annual tradition. Each year, the challenge for our designers is to create Pop Art-inspired posters for the Best Picture nominees, and each year poses a wonderful set of problems to solve. This seems to be the year of the individual, with personal stories of triumph, heartbreak and determination holding strong throughout the list of nominated films —…



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Playmoss lets you mix SoundCloud, YouTube and Vimeo in one place

Playmoss is a new app and website that lets users stream music and compile playlists from numerous platforms, including YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud. Playlists can be shared or embedded in full, including videos. The service even incorporates a section dedicated to album artwork. If you want to broaden your horizons, the app and website include dozens of preloaded playlists. We’ve included one from Chromeo below, with a mix of tracks from SoundCloud and YouTube. What’s it like in use? Both the app and the website are very sleek in their design and simple to navigate. A beta version of the…



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Planning on writing snarky Oscar tweets? Dove and Twitter want you to think again

Dove’s known for ad campaigns that claim to empower women. For its latest effort, the beauty company isn’t focusing on any one body part. Instead, it’s trying to stop women being negative about each other and themselves on social media – for one evening, at least. It’s not the only company concerned about unpleasantness online. Twitter’s own CEO, Dick Costolo, addressed the issue in an internal memo, which was obtained by The Verge: “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years.” So Twitter and Dove have teamed up to throw…



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World’s largest SIM manufacturer investigating claims US and British spies stole its encryption keys

Gemalto, the world’s largest supplier of SIM cards, says it’s investigating claims that US and British spies hacked into its systems to steal encryption keys, reports Reuters. The Franco-Dutch company, which calls itself a “world’s leader in digital security”, also makes smart chips for bank cards and biometric passports. It’s responding to claims by NSA-whistleblower Edward Snowden, published by The Intercept, that the NSA and GCHQ gained access to the keys and were able to decrypt voice and data communications without alerting users, networks or governments. In a statement, the company says: “We take this publication very seriously and will…



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Dropbox users can score 100GB of OneDrive storage for free

In an obvious attempt to lure users to switch to its OneDrive cloud storage service, Microsoft is giving Dropbox customers 100GB of space for free. To avail of the offer, visit this page to sign in to OneDrive and then verify your Dropbox account. It appears to work for users across the globe and doesn’t seem to be time limited. Drop the box – move your photos, music, and docs to #OneDrive and get 100 GB for one year free http://t.co/cF6QmPg5LV http://ift.tt/1zqz8s1 — OneDrive (@onedrive) February 19, 2015 If you’re invested in Microsoft’s suite of apps and services, this is…



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The MacBook Pro Giveaway

Looking for the ultimate portable computing experience? You can’t do better than Apple’s MacBook Pro. It’s packed to the gills with powerful components and precisely engineered for top performance, making for a must-have laptop for gadget aficionados. The 13-inch MacBook Pro features a high-resolution Retina display, a 2.6GHz dual-core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128 gigs of fast flash storage — and it’s ready to rock OS X Yosemite, the latest version of Apple’s beautiful, functional OS. We’re giving away this bad boy for free at TNW Deals! To enter our sweepstakes, just visit the offer page, submit your…



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Snapchat’s new music feature isn’t perfect, but it’s leading the way for mobile-first content creators

Snapchat has finally solved the issue of integrating music with video posts. Thanks to the newest update, you can now record a video while playing music on your phone and this will then play back in the video as well. If you went to record a video before the update, any music you were playing would automatically pause. This is an issue that still looms over Vine, Instagram and the iPhone’s default camera, so Snapchat has certainly got an advantage. Snapchat’s new feature works with iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Controversially, the update came after Snapchat blocked Mindie, an app that…



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Uber launches its food delivery service in Barcelona just in time for Mobile World Congress

This isn’t the first time Uber has offered to deliver you lunch from a local restaurant, but it is the first time that it’s offered to do it outside of the US. That’s right, as of today, Uber users in Barcelona, Spain can use the UberEATS service to get food delivered to their door. Of course, with Barcelona being the home of Mobile World Congress and that show kicking off in less than two weeks, a cynic might think it was a ploy to get European tech journalists and other visitors to the show to try the previously US-only service.…



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Microsoft adds handwriting features and OCR to OneNote for iPad

Microsoft has updated its cross-platform note-taking tool, OneNote, on iPad, adding two new features that make it easier to capture ideas naturally. The latest version adds handwriting support so you can write and draw directly into notes. There’s a range of tools, including a pen, marker and highlighter, and pages expand automatically to allow for uninterrupted note-taking. The app also includes Palm Rejection and asks you to indicate how you use a pen to improve accuracy. he update also adds optical character recognition (OCR), so you can search for text in scanned images and photos. Once you’ve added images to…



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This free tool scans Google Drive to check your business documents are safe

If you store documents with sensitive information about your business on Google Drive, there’s always the chance that someone in your company could make a mistake and leave them open for anyone to peruse. Data backup firm SysCloud’s new Security Grader tool is designed to flag up those issues. The free Web app analyzes your Google Drive security settings and document data, and offers recommendations for securing your files and blocking unauthorized access. Designed for domain administrators who are in charge of their company’s Google Apps installation, Security Grader offers a snapshot of potential vulnerabilities. The tool highlights which files…



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Slack’s now got a native Windows app

Team communication service Slack has just launched a beta version of its Windows desktop client. The desktop version brings all the features of the Web-based service together in a standalone program. However, it’s still in beta and needs a bit more work before it’s ready for prime time. Slack’s Windows team welcomes feedback about bugs and how ‘native’ the experience is. You can let them know by clicking the ‘?’ icon in the upper right corner of the app and choosing “Send us a help request.” In the short amount of time I got with the app, I didn’t find…



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