In the past month and a half, people everywhere took this idea of things certain types of people say and started creating their own videos. Some are based in observation, some from personal experience; some are in the name of awareness which lends to social justice activism (most notably, this happened with the Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls video), and some are merely a few minutes of someone indulging in poking a little fun at themselves and those who can relate to them. Late last week, I found one that sums up what I do here on Woman Tribune pretty accurately–Sh*t Mom Bloggers Say.

I have watched this video several times and I feel very confident in saying that it is impossible that it will get old any time soon. I also sent it to my partner who was very quick to point out some of the hilarious things he has seen me do in the name of blogging. Another great thing about this video is that it introduced me to Mama Knows It All. I began reading her blog very shortly after finding her video and as it turns out, she is pretty awesome, so you should definitely check her out–after you finish watching the video and laughing your ass off.

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Today, some of your favorite websites will not be displaying or functioning fully. They will not be at our collective disposal with just a click of a button, and their content will not be there, ready to entertain us, or inform us, or make us better citizens of the world. Instead, these websites will be dark or possess very little other than a message of protest against proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

As it stands today, the U.S. has laws in place to fight online piracy and copyright infringement. You see this in action every time you go to watch a YouTube video and instead of the video, you see a notice that it has been taken down due to some form of copyright infringement of [insert big name corporation here]. SOPA/PIPA would do surprisingly little to actually put an end to online piracy and copyright infringement. What it would do, however, is give the federal government the authority to censor and shut down entire websites on a media company’s say-so and put innovation, creativity, and freedom of expression severely at risk.

The U.S. legal system is held up by a fundamental idea: that people are innocent until proven guilty. The passing of SOPA/PIPA would make it so that those who own and operate websites would not be protected by this same right, as their websites could be taken down based on accusation alone and without due process.

Woman Tribune will not go dark today because as much as I support this protest and every single person doing everything they can to raise awareness about how much damage can and will likely be done with the passing of these pieces of legislation, I cannot afford for the ads you see on this website to go down for the day. And that is really the point, isn’t it?

I Work For the Internet. I have been blogging since I was 13 years old–nearly half my life–and exactly four years and one day ago, I published the first post on this website. While I love writing more than doing anything else in life, I did not start Woman Tribune because of my love of writing; I started my other blog, Menstrual Poetry, because of that. I created Woman Tribune with the hope that it would become a stable, full-time job. As a person who lives with clinical depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a debilitating disease that started as minor dental issues that has over the years caused my body to start attacking itself, I am not what one would call a reliable employee under normal, society-approved circumstances. It is because of the internet and its accessibility that I have been able to make a living by writing, editing, and freelancing as a web designer and developer. Without it, I would very likely have had little to no other options, and honestly, I have no idea where I would be today. If widespread censorship of the internet were to become an everyday reality, people who live in this country who rely on their blogs and internet businesses to keep them alive could lose everything.

Our society has been heavily influenced by the tech industry; how so many of us work and live has been strengthened by the tools and the platforms that have been made available to us because of the creativity and innovation that has been fostered through this industry. By having any aspect of that forcibly oppressed, we would all be affected.

Take action against SOPA and PIPA. Educate yourself about these two bills and what their passing would mean for every single person who goes on the internet every day. On January 24th, Congress will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate. Until then, write and call your lawmakers and make sure your voice of opposition is heard.

If you run a WordPress-powered blog and want to participate in the internet blackout today, there are numerous SOPA blackout plugins to choose from. If you don’t use WordPress, there are other apps and codes you can use. You can also follow news about the strike on Twitter using the hashtag #sopastrike.

Photo by SOPA Strike

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This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Consumer Electronic Show, which started today and is being held in Las Vegas until January 13th. Over the past 45 years, the CES has grow immensely. In 1967 it had just 17,500 attendees, over 100 exhibitors, and was held in a space of 150,000 square feet. In 1995, it was officially the largest electronics show in the country, and last year, 149,429 people visited the 1,700+ exhibitors, approximately 20,000 new products were debuted, and the event was held in a space of 1.6 million net square feet.

Check out the following infographic for some more interesting history on CES and why it is the place to be if you’re a tech enthusiast.

Click image to enlarge in new window

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Just like you need to make sure your computer isn’t susceptible to hackers, the level of security on your smartphone is crucial–and both platforms have weaknesses. Check out the following infographic that examines the security features of Android and iOS, and also takes a look at their strengths and weaknesses.


Infographic by Veracode Application Security

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It takes a unique vision and innovation for a company to start with an every day item most of us probably have dozens of lying around our house already and turn it into an exciting, new, must-have product. But that is precisely what Parker is all about–creating fine writing instruments that not only perform their basic function of putting pen to paper, but also make a sleek fashion statement all on their own.

The recently released Parker Ingenuity collection is said to be the first breakthrough in pen technology in many years. With this collection, Parker has set to revolutionize what a pen should feel and look like with the development of “5th Technology.” Where your standard pen is created with the attributes of one of the four current writing modes–either as a fountain pen, rollerball, ball point, or porous-point–5th Technology is the combination of all of these attributes. This means that each one-of-a-kind pen in the collection possesses the beauty of a fountain pen, the smooth writing experience of a rollerball, the longevity and ease of a ball point, and the smudge-free, fluid experience of a porous point pen. In other words, it’s just about as beautiful, comfortable, and perfect as a pen is going to get. Ever.

I have always been extremely particular about the pens I will use. When I was in school, at the beginning of every year I would buy a wide variety of all of the new pens that came out, because new pens always come out in time for back to school season, and I would test them all looking for the one that felt the most comfortable in my very thin fingers while producing a flawless, clot- and smudge-free pen stroke. Comfort and writing style are important when you know you’re going to be using that pen for hours at a time every weekday, whether you’re in school or you work in an office setting, and a pen that is also fashionable is, of course, an awesome perk.

The pens within the Parker Ingenuity Collection are modern, attention-grabbing, and come in six different beautiful finishes, so you are bound to find one that compliments your own style. Not to mention, with Christmas just a little over a week away, Parker Pens would make an excellent gift for anyone you know who loves making a fashion statement with every accessory and would get a lot of use out of a quality, comfortable pen.

Check out Parker on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the technology and innovation Parker is putting into writing instruments.

What would you use your Parker Pen for?

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How I wish social media was then what it is today. We were lucky to at least have Instant Messenger.

According to ComScore 2010 US Digital Year in Review women spend more time social networking than men. Women spent approximately 16.8% on social sites in December of 2010 while men spent only 12%.

Today, social media tools are just as much associated with businesses as well as personal lives. Some researchers claim women are better with social media while others say men are. To confuse matters further, the LinkedIn research team suggests that women are better communicators in male industries and men are better at marketing in female industries (here is the report).

However, is this a real gender issue–or is it more about the skills needed to get the job done?

In this article, I address specific skills which are necessary to have in order to effectively and efficiently work with these tools. A few are listed below.

Communication and Relationships

To be fair, men can be great communicators in the work place where they are required to communicate information related to their expertise. My brother is a perfect example. He is a doctor and is known for his warm old fashioned bedside manner with his patients. He is patient, takes his time explaining technical diagnoses in simple-to-understand terms. His patients love him. However, as his sister, I find his personal communication skills stink (for lack of a better word) and could use drastic improvement.

On the other hand, women stereotypically speaking are natural communicators. We innately desire more emotional components in our relationships, from the personal sexual aspect to the professional relationships we build in the workplace.

Having worked for nearly a decade from a home office, transitioning to a new job in an office location with other women was something I wasn’t too crazy about at first as I’m quite content minding my own when I work. However, it wasn’t before long I started finding the need to get up out of my chair just to see what was going on with others and start a little friendly chit chat.

While working at home, I had my husband to chat with throughout the day or at lunch. In the office in my new job at the time, I still needed that interactivity–I never knew how innate it actually was in my own life.

Organization and Strategy

Another skill a person who wants to be successful at social marketing must have is the ability to be strategically organized. This means planning campaigns and following through. My husband is a big picture thinker and visionary. He comes up with an idea and yet doesn’t have a clue how to strategically implement it. Just throw it out there and see what happens.

Yes, I know some women are like this too, but I’m talking in general–and yes based on stereotypes. In my current job, I just wrote a press release about our sip solutions for encryption. Sip service or trunking is another term for VoIP, but for business. I created a list of all the places I would need to post a link or reference to this press release. No point in posting it online at our website only to not tell anyone about it–what a waste of time! So, I organized a list of all the places and how to spread the word. I also wrote a blog post on the topic, creating additional internal linking and relevant content.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website, blogs, and newsletters–all these had to be strategically worded and sent out. I had to figure out not only what day to send it out, but what time of day in order to be most effective. Even though my male boss said it was fine to send it out on the weekend, I knew I’d be better off waiting for Monday daytime at the earliest. My efforts proved right.

To do well at social media is not about sending tweets at 2AM announcing a random new promo. It’s much more than that. It’s engaging with your audience in a deliberate and well managed and thought out process.

Intuition–Women Tend to Be Better at It

When dealing with social media, the tone of communication used for one company may be different than another. Learning to discern what is appropriate is an important aspect of communicating–it calls for intuition, something women tend to have a knack for.

For example, when working with my husband’s small business in sales, I knew many of our customers were from the art industry and not Corporate America. Many in our industry were mom and pop stores and having a personal touch is what worked for them.

Today, I work with a corporation, where my interactions may not be as personal–but the level of communication skill is–as long as it’s in an appropriate manner. For example, my role may be to ask a lot of industry specific questions to instigate a stronger degree of interaction and debate by those in my circles.

In the end, when dealing with social media tools, does it really matter if the role belongs to a man or woman? My answer is no, as long as the candidate has the proper interpersonal and relational skills needed for that particular job and industry. If they don’t, are they able to adapt and change?

Organization, strategy, intuition, and the ability to communicate effectively with the target audience–these are the skills which an individual who wants to be successful in the social media marketing world must either already possess or show an ability to learn an attain. If they cannot listen, learn and be trained–find someone who can!

Photo by Internet Marketing1

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Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. A term coined by Shop.org in 2005, this shopping event has grown exponentially over the last few years and in 2010, raked in $1.03 billion for online retailers.

The following infographic is full of interesting statistics and insight on Cyber Monday; from what people are taking advantage of the online deals available to what types of promotions have had the most success with consumers.

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“Mobile payments” allow consumers to make purchases or transfer money with a quick application downloaded to a mobile phone. Even though mobile payment systems are available today, plastic cards and cash won’t vanish tomorrow. Consumers and retailers will need convincing and incentives to make the switch.

Consumers won’t save money by paying with a mobile phone. The same fees and interest rates for consumers and interchange fees for retailers will apply to mobile payments. Retailers are also reluctant to spend the money to buy the equipment necessary to link your cell phone to their cash registers.

Google Wallet is the first mobile wallet entry, but it won’t be the last. At least three competing digital wallets (from Visa, PayPal and Isis–a joint venture of AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) are planned for launch later this year and in 2012.

Google Wallet will not replace your regular wallet. You will still need a place for your driver’s license and credit cards that are not a part of Google Wallet. Google Wallet plans to expand to include other banks, but if your bank is not one of the partners, your options are limited by Google Wallet.

Google Wallet is starting with a limited introduction and is currently not available on all mobile phones. If you own a Nexus S 4G phone from Sprint, you can download a Google Wallet app that will allow you to pay for purchases with Citi PayPass-eligible MasterCards or a Google Prepaid Card by tapping the phone on a PayPass terminal. Google Wallet can also work on Visa’s payWave System.

Tips for Using Mobile Payments:

Most of the electronic payment options are tied to credit cards and debit cards, and the same costs will transfer to mobile payments. Purchase protections vary by type of payment and it is up to the consumer to read the fine print and understand the risks of unauthorized activity or errors on their statement.

• Tie your payments to a credit card. This gives you the best protections no matter where you make your purchase. Credit card purchase protections, caps on liability and regulations will also apply to a mobile payment backed by a credit card. Under federal law, you are responsible for the first $50 in unauthorized charges after you notify your bank. You also have the right to dispute a charge and the right to charge back an item.

• Payments linked to debit cards also have the same purchase protections and liability as a standard debit card.

• Avoid billing to prepaid cards. Prepaid cards have more fees than credit and debit cards. They typically cost more and do not have the same purchase protections or caps on liability.

• Do not bill to gift cards. Gift cards do not offer purchase protections. If you must use a gift card for payment, keep the gift card receipt. If your phone is stolen, contact the merchant immediately to limit your losses.

• Avoid billing to your telephone account. These accounts offer no protections or caps on liability. Ask your carrier to block third-party charges to your cell phone or your landline. Consumers must pay the wireless company for disputed charges even if a report of a disputed amount was made and the report is pending investigation. If you do bill to a telephone company, place a cap on any third-party charges to your phone bill.

• If you lose your phone, immediately call your cellular carrier to disable your phone. Call your bank or credit card issuer to block access to your accounts.

• No matter what payment method you use, look carefully at your statements for any charges that are incorrect and report errors promptly.

• Send complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• Stay within your budget. The easier the payment, the easier it is to make impulse purchases and spend more than you intended.

“Ideally, consumers should have strong protections against unauthorized transactions and billing errors with a mobile payment, no matter what form of payment is used,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com. “But this is new, and consumers have to know what they are signing up for and the risk. Mobile payments are another easy way to charge more than you can afford. If you can’t pay off your balance in full each month, don’t increase your credit card balance with mobile payments.”

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A few days ago I went to Amazon’s website, as I very regularly do, and was surprised to notice that the entire site was cleaner. It was simplistic in its delightful white space, the search area was larger and there wasn’t so much going on around the edges to take my mind off of the reason why I had gone onto their website in the first place. It took me a little while to notice the change as it wasn’t so drastic as it was cleaned up.

Turns out that Amazon has begun testing a redesign of their entire website where even the wish list and shopping cart features are more refined and a lot less hassle for people attempting to utilize their extensive list of services and applications.

Sadly my exposure to Amazon’s redesigned site has been revoked. I’m not sure why this is; it was here one day and today it’s back to the same old cluttered, headache-inducing blue and orange. In fact, I didn’t know just how annoying and hideous I found Amazon to be as a whole until I was given a much more aesthetically-pleasing view of the website. I would like to request that Amazon speed up this whole trial release business and just make what I saw the other day permanent. Please?

Many are reporting that Amazon’s new redesign could foreshadow the launch of Amazon’s very own Android-powered tablet, which would be very smart as Amazon basically championed the popularity of e-readers with their Kindle.

The Amazon tablet rumor has been making its round through the rumor mill since July, where it was speculated that it would be released in October. Some have even predicted that it would be priced at $250; another great move on Amazon’s part, undercutting the iPad by a substantial amount of money and therefore making their tablet more accessible.

Nevertheless, I’m pretty thrilled that Amazon is getting a fresh, new look and I hope the full launch date is soon. I’m also extremely interested in what an Android-powered tablet by Amazon could possibly bring to the table. Amazon, you don’t have to be so mysterious!

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This right here is how you do something super awesome to give back to your customers in celebration of an important milestone, while also drumming up some amazing buzz at the same time.

MailChimp, the very popular service that lets you easily design and customize email newsletters for your blogs and businesses, is turning ten years old. Ten years! That is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any business, even when you don’t begin to consider how drastically the internet market has changed within that time. Nevertheless, MailChimp obviously stayed ahead of the curve within their market and they did it successfully; otherwise, they would not be celebrating a whopping ten years in business. So to celebrate, MailChimp wants to pick up your next coffee tab.

If you have a MailChimp t-shirt, all you have to do is wear it this Saturday, August 20th, into any of the participating coffee shops and you will receive a free coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee shops in on MailChimp’s birthday extravaganza are in select cities and none of the shops are chains. On one hand, this is giving some great exposure and business to coffee shops who are most likely struggling to stay open while being surrounded by extremely large chains. On the other hand, this deal isn’t able to be taken advantage of by every MailChimp customer. Luckily, MailChimp has a little something for the rest of us as well.

All Intelligentsia Coffee online orders made on August 20th are 15% off. Just use coupon code FREDDIEFAN during checkout to receive your discount on any of the coffees and teas Intelligentsia supplies.

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This law is not a bad idea, in theory. There are few advantages for students to have constant access to their teachers outside of the classroom atmosphere and without the supervision of fellow teachers, principals and school boards. The world of social media could arguably aid in teachers’ abilities to mentor and tutor students through group chats, email and instant messaging, but teachers already work a tremendous amount of hours. I find it hard to believe that many teachers would enjoy having their students reaching out to them for extra help or to chat during the little time that they spend away from their classrooms and the almost-constant piles of paperwork and assignments waiting to be graded.

While this law has been received well as a reasonable step to ensure the safety of students and the jobs of hard-working teachers, the extremely vague language of the bill has caused some major concern. In its own language, the bill states that any online interaction between “teachers and current or former students” is forbidden, which has brought up many questions. For instance, does the law pertain to any student that a teacher has personally had in class, or does it extend to any student within a specific school district? When it comes to former students interacting with teachers through social networking, is there a specific time period that must elapse before you can have any online interaction with any teacher who has ever taught you?

This is obviously a new type of law that has emerged from the recent networking possibilities that social networking websites have made possible, but I don’t think that Missouri’s new take on appropriate teacher-student relationships will really accomplish what it sets out to primarily because of the broad wording of the bill.

When I was in high school, which was just a mere six years ago, I had the privilege of having two years of a Creative Writing class with an amazing teacher who single-handedly gave me immense confidence in my ability to write well. Without having him as a teacher, I doubt I would have gone on in life to not just write for a living, but to write for a space that I also created. When I first read about this new law in Missouri, I immediately thought of him and how it was not uncommon for him to give all of his students his personal email address. Out of curiosity, I looked him up on Facebook last night and there are many of his former students who are friends with him on Facebook. If we lived in Missouri, would reaching out to one of the most influential teachers you ever had in your life be against the law, even if you were taught by this educator a handful of years or more ago?

Photo by SCSSAPICS

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Spotify, an award-winning music service that was founded in Sweden in 2008 and has since built up an audience of over 10 million listeners. The service allows users to play millions of tracks instantly on their computers and phones and after three years of getting more and more popular, they opened up memberships in the U.S. late last week. Going the same route Google did with their Gmail web-based email service and the recently-released Google+ social networking service, U.S. accounts for Spotify are invite-only.

By making a service only available to those who can score an invite from a friend, that brand is creating immense buzz for their service. I have seen countless people taking to their Twitter and Facebook accounts in hopes of someone with a Spotify account seeing their request and sharing the love. While it may seem as if Spotify are limiting the amount of people who will utilize their service, they are actually attracting even more people to it by quite literally forcing people to talk about them. People are much more likely to try a service changing the way they listen to music on their computers and on the go if they see a lot of people talking about it.

If you’ve been searching for that friend who will share the experience of the new music service with you but can’t seem to get an invite, Spotify has partnered with Klout in a move that has made social media influencers on Twitter and Facebook very happy. Just visit the Klout Perks page, sign in to your Klout account or create an account (you can sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account), and you’ll know immediately if you have qualified for a Spotify Free account.

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The event was hosted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and to kick off the event, President Obama tweeted from his @whitehouse account about reducing the deficit, a theme that played out heavily during the Twitter-fueled Q&A.

Over 70,000 tweets were sent to the President either through the #AskObama hashtag or mentioned the @townhall username. Several talking points arose including questions about job creation, the economy, housing and the legalization of marijuana. In fact, the most retweeted question of the entire town hall event was, “Would you consider legalizing marijuana to increase revenue and save tax dollars by freeing up crowded prisons, court rooms.” Sadly, the President did not answer this tweet, which is a true shame. I would be genuinely interested in hearing the President’s answer, considering we have known for quite some time now that the 40-year War on Drugs has been a failed effort.

According to White House officials, out of the 70,000+ tweets that rolled in, President Obama answered 18 questions during the event, questions that were carefully selected by a team from Twitter and a group of veteran Twitter users from around the country.

Being the classy bunch we all know them to be, House Speaker John Boehner and many Republican members of Congress took to their own Twitter accounts to berate the President on job creation and the budget; most obvious throughout these tweets were the snarky attitudes oozing from their 140-characters. It made me think that perhaps these politicians are not aware of how our government works. The Republican members of Congress all ran on a platform that promised voters job creation; that is the reason why so many from the right-wing were elected into their positions in the first place. Fast-forward to the present and they are sitting in their cozy positions, passing their workload over to the President and fighting every step of the way to making any headway.

The most enthusiastic of Twitter users during the event were those from the Washington DC area. Other areas accumulating the most tweets were from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

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Nintendo representatives issued a public statement of being the target of an online attack yesterday, but the attack itself, which consisted of Lulzsec successfully entering a U.S. Nintendo server, is said to have occurred a few weeks ago. The server that was compromised in the attack did not contain any consumer information, so Nintendo users should not be alarmed or worried about their private information falling into the wrong hands. Lulzsec has also posted on their Twitter page that they meant no harm by the attack, saying:

Re: Nintendo, we just got a config file and made it clear that we didn’t mean any harm. Nintendo had already fixed it anyway. <3 them!

Lulzsec is the same group that successfully hacked into the PBS NewsHour website in late May and posted a fake story claiming that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive. They have also taken credit for infiltrating the Sony Pictures and Sony BMG websites in the midst of their cleanup and repair after a previous hacker attack that compromised their entire PlayStation Network, PlayStation Store and Qriocity music service. Lulzsec has also previous hacked into an FBI-affiliated website and into the servers of the well-known hacking magazine “2600″.

Photo by Dynamite Jack

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Since the first attack, as well as a second against Sony Online Entertainment that was discovered on May 2, Sony has announced the return of online services three separate times. Each time, progress has been delayed. Today, Sony has once again announced a time of restored service–the end of this week.

In a press release from the company, Sony assures users that they “have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online…”

They are also hoping to make amends to the roughly 77 million users who have been affected by the PlayStation Network outage. Sony will be offering customers a “Welcome Back” package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity account services. These services, which include possible free games, a selection of free movie rentals and more than 100 free virtual goods, are available depending on where each user lives and what device they own.

41 days in the world of online gaming addictions is one incredibly long span of time to be without a service that comes with the price tag of a Sony PlayStation console, but I am actually quite hopeful that security measures have been taken and that it has taken the company this long to ensure that the safety of their users is protected.

Photo by Evolved Gaming

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First hitting the scene in 2008, TweetDeck has been one of the most popular and trusted third-party apps. It is packed full of awesome features that make managing not just your Twitter account, but a myriad of different social media accounts–and multiple accounts at the same time–incredibly easy. Unlike a few apps that have risen in popularity, TweetDeck has not revoked privileges that users have become reliant on in order to effectively manage their accounts and ways of being able to correspond.

In their three years of operation, it seems like TweetDeck has done just about everything right. And it paid off. It paid off big. News was released recently that TweetDeck has officially been acquired by Twitter for a whopping $40 million.

The offer made by Twitter is so surprising because it is $10 to $15 million more than what UberMedia was speculated to acquire TweetDeck for back in February. Looks like Twitter just couldn’t stand the thought of TweetDeck being acquired by another company specializing in third-party apps.

One of the main concerns many users have expressed since the acquisition news was first released is if Twitter is going to continue allowing users to manage their other social media accounts through TweetDeck. Now that it is an official Twitter application, it is very much possible for them to limit TweetDeck’s capability to Twitter-only. Another very large fear of the TweetDeck community is that now that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, they could have been looking to merely shelve the app and take it out of the picture completely. It is agreed that this would be a very bad move on Twitter’s part, but I suppose we can only wait and see what happens with the future of TweetDeck.

Photo by Rosetta

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Staying up-to-date on news and current events has always been incredibly important to me. As soon as I hit my pre-teen years, I began developing my world view and soaking up as much information as I possibly could about anything and everything I was interested in. I have always had the very strong-held belief that knowledge and information about the way in which the world around us works is power; this is especially true when you notice something within society that you want to help change. This belief in itself is what initially led me to start blogging. Over a decade later, this hunger for knowledge and news has only gotten more intense.

Technology has become such an integral part of how we receive and share information from all over the world. As technology continues to progress, more people are utilizing other gadgets and options in order to share information. The iPad has quickly became one of the greatest resources for new and exciting information and story-based apps being created specifically for the iPad.

A brand new app dedicated to exploring globally relevant topics just launched on April 12th. “the collection” is a media-rich “appazine”, a zine in iPad app form, that uses ground-breaking innovation that is highly interactive in its design and ensures a compelling and entertaining experience for everyone who downloads and utilizes the app.

“the collection” contains first-class articles that you won’t find anywhere else on topics that span a myriad of different topics from several points of view with a whole lot of crisp, clean photos, auto, videos and interactive elements like panoramic photography, 3D digital animation, creative morphing, rubbing and X-Ray lens, among other things. They are really rolling out all the stops to bring users a fantastic experience while staying up-to-date on the world around us all.

iPad Giveaway

To celebrate the launch of the new appazine, “the collection” is giving away an iPad! How awesome is that?

To enter to win, all you have to do is tweet the following mention and you will be automatically entered into the giveaway. This giveaway ends May 15th, so get your tweets in quickly!

Stay up-to-date with current events by using #thecollection iPad App

If you already have an iPad, you can download “the collection” free for the remainder of the year and begin experiencing it for yourself today!

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For quite some time now I have read countless blog posts, Twitter updates and Facebook posts about how beloved “Angry Birds” has become with, well, pretty much everyone. Since its initial release for Apple’s iOS, the game has been played by over 12 million users and just two days ago, it was introduced to a whole new, even wider audience when Google Chrome released the game free for their browser.

I hadn’t played “Angry Birds” before it was made available by Google Chrome, but as soon as I heard the news of it now being browser-supported, I decided to give it a whirl. Millions of people have been really into the game for years now, so I went into it, admittedly, expecting to see what all the fuss was about and get out.

Two days later, I am still addicted to this game which entails using birds, each type with their own unique destruction power, used to make intricate buildings come crashing down in order to destroy little green pigs who have stolen the birds’ eggs. With over 70 different levels, “Angry Birds” provides an amazing amount of playing time, especially if you’re a little obsessive compulsive, like myself, and absolutely need to get three stars on every level. Yes, I am one of those people.

“Angry Birds” for Google Chrome is still in beta, but they are diligently working on fixing some minor bugs you’ll probably run into throughout the game at one point or another. Luckily, you won’t experience them for long.

If you’ve never played this game, but have been told by several people just how fun and, yes, addicting it is, and want to experience it for yourself, or if you just want to another platform to experience the structure demolition using several different varieties of ridiculously cute birds who make equally cute sounds, download Google Chrome (if you don’t have it installed already) and download this app.

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Two separate major hacking incidents occurred with Sony over the past three weeks. Hackers may have stolen personal information from approximately 25 million accounts from Sony Online Entertainment. In a separate attack on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, sensitive details were at risk for 77 million customers, according to CNN. Personal information included name, address, email address, birthdate, PlayStation passion and log in. In addition, the hackers may have stolen password security answers and credit card information.

Sony is certainly not the only major corporation to be the target of a massive heist. Last year, 130 million accounts were stolen from a payment processing company, Heartland Payment Systems. In 2007, 46 million accounts were stolen from TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. Even MasterCard had 40 million accounts compromised in 2005.

Here are some steps and precautions you can take to protect yourself from online hackers:

1. Change your passwords from time to time. Don’t pubicly post anything you may use as a password: your birthdate, pet’s name, mother’s maiden name, or your school. Identity thieves can use the information you post to guess your password.

2. Do not email your credit card number to anyone. Currently, there are many phishing scams using Sony’s name. Sony, or any other company, will not contact you and ask for your social security number, credit card number or other personal information. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from email you receive, regardless of what company sent them. You can forward phishing emails to spam@uce.gov.

3. Monitor debt and credit cards for suspicious purchases at least weekly. If you feel your card information was stolen, considering canceling your linked card. Be persistent with watching your accounts–it may be months or even a year before thieves actually use your card.

4. Check your credit reports. You can get one free credit report every year from each of the three credit bureaus. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com or call (877) 322-8228 to order. Stagger these reviews throughout the year in order to catch anything that isn’t correct in your account.

5. If you use a wireless router, protect it and enable the encryption to scramble the data you send online.

6. Use your credit card instead of debit card. Credit cards offer stronger fraud and identity theft protections.

7. If you feel your information has been compromised, place a fraud alert at the three major credit bureaus. Call Experian at 888-397-3742; Equifax at 800-525-6285; and TransUnion on at 800-680-7289. You can put a security freeze on your files.

8. Ask your bank if it has free software to protect your bank account. Bank of America offers Trusteer Rapport for its online banking customers.

9. If your information has been stolen file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The data is used to create a picture of wrongdoing. Unfortunate, the FTC won’t get your money back.

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Current research and medical studies reveal that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Each time one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she brings a league of family, friends and loved ones with her to join in the fight against it. The fight against breast cancer is never just the fight of the one diagnosed with it; it is the fight of everyone who has ever known someone who has been diagnosed.

It’s true that countless people have committed themselves wholly to fighting breast cancer, but what every person who has donated their time, resources and finances to this fight will tell you, is that the fight will not stop until a cure for this severe and tragic cancer has been found. One of the most pivotal steps in ensuring a cure is found within our lifetime is to continue raising awareness while making a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by breast cancer.

BeeWell for Life is a resource dedicated to supplying people just like you and me with the resources and tools available to make the most of your healthy active lifestyle. Their website is fully dedicated to the health and wellbeing of your body, mind and spirit while continuing to lead the way in breast cancer awareness and support through their partnership with the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization.

The BeeWell for Life website is also the home of the BeeWell Miles Program where you can Walk and Bee the Difference. For every mile you walk, run or cycle and log on their website, they will donate $0.10 to the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization to fund YourShoes, a peer support program that includes a 24/7 breast cancer center that provides a toll-free hotline, email and support groups staffed by trained breast cancer survivors, as well as other outreach and awareness services and programs.

To make sure you never miss an important health tip, be sure to follow @BeWellforLife on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

iPad2 Giveaway

In an effort to get more people having active conversations about breast cancer, raising awareness and to help make a difference in the lives of those affected by breast cancer, BeeWell for Life has just launched Tag4Cancer.com, where they are giving away an iPad2 to two lucky winners. To enter to win, tweet from the Tag4Cancer.com website and make sure your tweet includes the hashtag #Tag4Cancer, links back to the official Tag4Cancer website and mentions both @beewellforlife and one of your friend’s Twitter handles so they can raise breast cancer awareness too. The more you tweet, the better your chances of winning.

But that isn’t all; you have yet another chance to win an iPad2 by introducing other participating bloggers (like myself) to some of your most inspiring, motivating friends! To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling us how or why a certain friend of yours inspires you to either be fit or to make a difference in others. You must link to your friend’s blog, Facebook profile or Twitter handle in your comment.

For the list of participating bloggers where you can also comment to enter to win an iPad2, check out the contest rules. This contest will end May 31st.

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After seeing a post on Dr. Patch Adams’ website, Bloggers Unite were inspired to create a day in his honor centered around this very trait that Dr. Adams so abundantly lives his life by. In the post, Dr. Adams put together a variety of different ways to show compassion in your everyday life. The list was designed to be part of a medical school program, but on May 15th, Bloggers Unite is asking bloggers all over the world to join them in celebrating Dr. Patch Adams and the act of compassion by picking one or two ideas out of this list and incorporating them into your blogging.

How would these ideas change you as a person, and how would that change impact your loved ones and their loved ones?

Take a moment, think about it and share your story with the world on May 15th for International Day of Compassion in Honor of Dr. Patch Adams.

“Compassion is not religious business, it is human business. It is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability. It is essential for human survival.”
–Dalai Lama

• Keep a journal about your relationship with love and compassion. What is it? Ask everyday, how are you giving it? (Pay close attention. Be present.) How are you receive it? (From everything, from strangers, from trees, etc.)

• Do things outrageous for love, like clowning.

• Actually see if you can produce the vibration of compassion for prolonged periods. What sustains it? (Friends, having meaning, fun.) What hurts it? (Arrogance, apathy, tight underwear.) Are there times you do not want to be compassionate?

• Be observant of compassion in action around you, everywhere, and give details of its language.

• Become aware of compassionate projects around the world and plan on at least one elective at a project.

• Explore the language of love and compassion. Read psychologists and poets, write essays on things you love.

• How do you recognize love and compassion? Are there measurements?

• How do you change performances of compassion in different situations?

• Explore how you relate to other people on issues of class consciousness, race, age, sexual preference. Pay close attention. Decide to connect with people you don’t normally hang out with.

• Explore this question: Should a medical student be evaluated for compassion and not graduate if they are not compassionate? How is it evaluated? By who?

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So you would think that with a resume like mine, I would have had all the kinks of Woman Tribune’s design worked out long ago. You would have thought right, that is, until I changed the way in which the images of each blog post appeared on our main page and then didn’t re-check the way in which other browsers dealt with this seemingly small change. Big mistake.

Early last week, while talking to a friend of mine and finishing up a website I had created for a client (and Woman Tribune contributor), we got to talking about browsers; specifically Internet Explorer and how the browser has very much succeeded in becoming the thorn in the side of just about every web designer and developer out there. This point was driven home right after I decided to bring up Woman Tribune in IE since I haven’t checked the site out in that particular browser since it first launched after being completely revamped and re-branded months ago. Turns out that IE has not been showing the images of each blog post on our main page at all and I have been sitting here, blissfully ignorant of the issue. Yeah.

So you may have noticed that Woman Tribune went a few days without being updated last week. If you visit the site itself frequently, you will also have noticed that when we did start updating again, Woman Tribune was looking a bit different. It was through that conversation and finding out that IE has been having some problems with one teeny, tiny line of code, that I decided Woman Tribune absolutely, positively needed to be redesigned. Sure, I could have just fixed one part of the code, but as I tweeted in the midst of redesigning the site, I make web design mountains out of molehills.

And so here you have it, the new design of Woman Tribune. The last design I will roll out within the foreseeable future because really, I’m not so much into change or feeling the need to look at something completely different every few months, although I very much used to be that way. I would spend more time designing a website than actually updating it. I’m over that now so I hope you all really love the new look because I do, and hey, if you don’t, there’s always the RSS feed!

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Oh my goodness, it’s Ultimate Blog Party time again! Every year I swear I have a complete mental lapse and completely forget about this amazing event, but like clockwork, my very good friend Jenny reminds me. She’s pretty amazing like that, and she’s also partying so go check her out!

So, if all of this Ultimate Blog Party talk is completely new to you, let me get you up to speed. Every year, the immensely awesome women over at 5 Minutes for Mom put together the Ultimate Blog Party, a blogging event where all sorts of bloggers–thousands of bloggers, in fact– take part by creating a party post, pretty much like the one you are reading right now, and do a whole lot of blog hopping. Laughs are shared, discussions begin, and friendships are formed. It’s a really incredible way of meeting new bloggers and making new friends. I’m a big fan, which is probably why I have been participating in the Ultimate Blog Party since 2008!

So hello there, newcomers! Welcome to Woman Tribune!

My name is Holly and I’m a 24-year-old woman who has dreamed of being a writer since I was in the eighth grade. After dropping out of high school as a senior (because I was an angst-ridden teenager who had just been diagnosed with severe clinical depression that I still live with today), I got my GED less than a year later. With no college degree or any other certification assuring newspapers, magazines, or corporate-owned blogs that I was worthy of being a writer, I created Woman Tribune in January 2008. So I guess you could call me a professional blogger, since I do make my living through blogging, but “professional blogger”, to me, sounds way too cool and professional. Instead, I prefer to be known as simply a woman with a penchant for typing while in pajamas and drinking coffee until the wee hours of the morning. That’s just more me.

Woman Tribune is based off of a very simple concept. It is a blog that regularly features news and information from around the world on just about everything. It’s pretty general and wide open because I really hate the idea of being stifled and enjoy the freedom to write about whatever I find interesting, exciting, or informative. Simply put, it’s a blog that explores everything within our collective lives, regardless of where we happen to be in our life’s journey.

I live in a very small town in Northeast, Pennsylvania, made up of only about 600 people. It’s the almost-country. I live on a street that brings you directly into another small town, but if you take a wrong turn, you’re likely to get lost within the many, many acres of farms.

I live with my partner, Allen, who I refuse to call my boyfriend because it makes me feel like I’m still in Junior High. We have been together for a little over five years. Here’s a picture of us taken last Christmas. Mind you, it is not a particularly great picture, but it’s a picture!

We also have two cats; Devin, who is about four years old and Vincent who is almost a year. If I didn’t have Allen, I would definitely be considered one of those oh, so very cliche “crazy cat ladies.” Then again, I do probably fit the bill.

Woman Tribune isn’t my whole life, just most of it! In addition to pouring myself into this website daily, I also blog on Menstrual Poetry, a blog that can only be described as “the personal is political”. You see, a lot of people think I’m a controversial person, although I really don’t. I think I’m a swell–and often hilarious–person who just so happens to be a feminist. My grandmother sums up everything I do in life, from my decision to work from home to the fact that I am adamantly against using a blow dryer on my hair on the fact that I’m a feminist. Whenever she introduces me to people or I am talking to anyone she knows, she feels the need to immediately interject with ‘…and she’s a feminist!’ as if it is a warning to anyone who comes into contact with me. Kind of like ‘…and she has leprosy! So don’t get too close!’

Also, all those things you’re not really supposed to talk about at parties; things like politics and most social issues… Yeah, I’m not too good about keeping those thoughts to myself, especially at parties and that goes double for family dinners. But I’m also an incredibly open-minded person who really just loves talking about things that you’re not supposed to. That also goes for menstruation. I could talk about it all day long with a side of extra spicy hot wings.

I am also a sporadic web designer and developer. I am completely self-taught and started learning HTML code when I was 12 years old. My dad used to think I wasted all my time on the computer doing nothing. It is because of those years that I can now waste all my time on the computer doing something!

Thanks for visiting my party post and I hope you take a look around Woman Tribune while you’re here! Hopefully I didn’t go on too long and bore you out of your mind or drive you away!

If you’re still with me here, you should go enter a giveaway we have going on right now. We are giving away a copy of the newly-released Wow! Wow! Wubbzy Easter DVD, “Wubbzy’s Egg-Cellent Easter”. This giveaway ends April 7th at 11:59 p.m. ET.

I look forward to connecting with everyone at the Ultimate Blog Party this year! Have fun!

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I have something to tell all of you that will undoubtedly surprise a great deal of people, especially those who list their cell phones as one of their most important possessions they couldn’t bare to live without. I have never owned a cell phone before in my life, nor have I ever had any experience with a GPS. It is all just so, completely foreign to me. It seems that for as knowledgeable as I am when it comes to blogging and to social media, to graphic design and web development, I am just as unknowledgeable when it comes to most actual gadgets.

So when Nokia sent me their Nokia N8 handset loaded with a program Nokia has just recently made available on a wide variety of their phones–the Own Voice for Ovi Maps application–I was full of apprehension.

When I first received the Nokia N8 phone, I knew my partner would benefit more from having a reliable phone full of great features more than I would. Firstly, I work from home and have substantial anxiety issues that keep me in the house most of the time. He, however has been known to go out on the road with bands and play live shows, as well as needing to travel long distances for work. This would alleviate my worrying to a certain degree when he does that. Win/win. While he has been using the Nokia N8 as a smartphone for calls and keeping up with social media and networking, after we got some service for the thing with T-Mobile who offers a great month-to-month service plan, we really got to test out the Own Voice for Ovi Maps application when we traveled from Northeastern, Pennsylvania to Kent, Ohio just a few weeks ago and had no idea where we were going for a good portion of the trip.

Firstly, the set up of Own Voice is kind of funny. The phone prompts you with what you say and you speak into the microphone in the phone and it records your voice saying “turn right”, “you have reached your destination” and other directional prompts. Over and over again. This process is a lot more fun if you have someone you care about record these prompts for your phone, instead of having your own voice give you directions while you drive, which could be a little weird for some people.

When you have your directional prompts all recorded, just open Own Voice for Ovi Maps on your phone and set your destination. Your handset will automatically detect where you are and will guide you to where you need to get.

In addition to recording your own voice into the application, Own Voice for Ovi Maps also lets you download voice packs that other people have recorded for the application, and choose from an extensive variety of pre-loaded voices, including a sophisticated English woman’s voice.

For the most part, when my partner and I traveled to Kent, Ohio, Own Voice for Ovi Maps got us to our location effortlessly. That is, until we were traveling from Akron, Ohio, where we had just finished an amazing breakfast at IHOP, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit a good friend of ours. After the Own Voice for Ovi Maps got us out of the parking lot of IHOP and down the highway a bit, it immediately told us to take a U-turn, followed by first left turns and another U-turn. The application simply must have thought that we would absolutely love the scenery in Akron and did not want us to leave. After we decided it would be best to not listen to the GPS and get towards the highway we needed to be on, the phone then automatically zoomed all the way out and showed us an image of planet Earth. Just in case we were not aware that we needed to be in Earth in order to get to Pittsburgh.

Luckily, after a few hiccups, the application did get us to our destination, after forcing it to recalculate the route once we were on the highway and going in the right direction.

One of the weirdest, and most frustrating, aspect of the application is that while it gives you the option of choosing feet, Ovi Maps insists on reading everything to you in meters. While I understand that the Nokia N8 phone is predominantly available in Europe, if the option to convert from meters to feet is there, it should work, but it does not.

The Nokia N8 phone itself is chock full of really great features, including a 12 megapixel camera with sound quality that rivals the two other cameras I own. In fact, the sound when playing back video and recordings is about the same quality of my HP laptop. What completely blows my mind, however, is that the speakerphone quality when you are talking to someone is atrocious. If you are on the phone with someone on speakerphone, you can barely hear the person on the other end regardless of if you have the volume turned up completely. If you have a Nokia N8, you can also purchase a Nokia Bluetooth Headset that is said to make the quality of the sound produced by the phone better.

The Nokia N8 also has an HDMI connection so you can show your images and play your videos and music on compatible televisions and even projectors with a high-definition 720p resolution. It also features integrated social networking, pulling feeds from Facebook and Twitter to one application. It also supports games and additional apps you can download.

You can download Own Voice for your phone by visiting their website and simply entering your country and phone number.

Disclosure: I received a Nokia N8 phone from Nokia in return for this review.

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We have all heard of voice recognition software. A lot of us have even used it, but not nearly enough people have had overwhelming success with it. Instead, it’s more like overwhelming frustration or hilarity when you tell your phone to call your husband and it dials the number for your Great Aunt Mable instead. The people behind Evie, a new iPhone app that uses voice recognition to make your daily life a whole lot easier, especially when you’re on the go, have been working to change that.

Evie lets you do more on your iPhone than one would think possible using only your voice. Sure, you can use it to make a phone call. Evie dials any number from your list of iPhone contacts just by asking the app to “Call Tom Smith on mobile” or “Call Tom Smith at home.” You can also tell it to call a specific phone number. But voice activated dialing is something we have all come to expect from voice recognition software. That’s not really an absolutely impressive selling point or anything. So how about we delve a little further into what Evie is capable of doing?

Facebook is a never-ending source of entertainment, current events and news, meetups and more. With Evie, all you have to do is load the app and tap the Facebook icon or simply save “Facebook” and Evie will read your Facebook news feeds at any time, even while you’re driving. How many times have you been out running errands only to come home, sit down at the computer and realize you’ve missed some really important things going on that you wish you knew about sooner? It happens to me all the time. Once you download Evie, however, it won’t happen nearly as much.

Under normal circumstances, when my partner and I make plans to go out of town, we spend a few days prior to our trip looking for additional points of interest around where we’re going to be or what we’ll drive by on the way there or back. This is normal for us so when we have to be somewhere without getting a good week or so notice beforehand, we embark upon our journey blindly, which honestly, can be a little scary for me, the mega-planner. I know there’s a lot of people out there who also like to do their research before heading out for a few days, so if you’re ever traveling and want to know what else is going around the town you’re in, just load your Evie app and let Evie find what you’re looking for along the way. Evie can find gas stations, movie theaters, restaurants and more. The app can also help you call a specific business or point of interest and show you the directions to get there. If you also have AT&T Navigator, Evie will automatically turn over to navigation mode and give you turn-by-turn directions to get you where you need to go.

Traveling, whether you’re just out for the afternoon running errands or traveling across great distances just isn’t the same without music. With Evie, you can play specific songs, artists, CDs, genres, podcasts and even audio books that are stores in your iPod. Using just your voice, Evie can play them all. Pretty cool, right?

Evie is an iPhone app that is so versatile and can do so much that it is the perfect addition to your iPhone apps regardless of who you are and what your lifestyle is like. Best of all, it’s a completely free app, so there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be utilizing it.

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