Central Perk

marți, 4 octombrie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Personal Assistant
Meanwhile... Around the World - Part 2
Pop Stars: Before and After Lady Gaga
Healthcare in America [Infographic]
Petey the Dog Plays Basketball
Flight Attendants All Over the World
The Evolution of Video Game Controllers

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Personal Assistant

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 06:39 PM PDT

You can finally lay all that speculation to rest because here it is! Apple's set its latest iPhone family member free, and out into the wireless wild for your future consumption. Pictured above is the new dual-core A5 processor-equipped, dual CDMA / GSM iPhone 4S awash in Siri-enabled voice control. The iPhone 4S, that comes with a "virtual assistant," Siri, that recognizes voice commands by users to schedule appointments, dictate text messages

You can snag this black or white update on October 14th in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations for $199, $299 and $399, respectively. The gallery below with Cupertino's latest smartphone refresh.

Meanwhile... Around the World - Part 2

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Time to check in with countries around the world, and see what they're up to. Don't mean to offend anyone. I just found some of these funny. Hope you do too.

Previous Part:
Meanwhile... Around the World - Part 1

Pop Stars: Before and After Lady Gaga

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:23 PM PDT

Not only has Lady Gaga made a name for herself through her fashion choices, but she's also influenced other singers to improve their celeb status by doing the same. Notable celebrities like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, and Nicki Minaj took their fashion to the extreme once Gaga became famous for hers.

Source: andrewsheldon.tumblr.com

Healthcare in America [Infographic]

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:19 PM PDT

How bad is the healthcare problem in America? 14% of Americans are uninsured with many more under-insured, 75% of all bankruptcies are from the result of medical bills and 60% of insured individuals are in debt from health related expenses. The cost of healthcare is no longer affordable to many middle class families even with health insurance, so we would say its pretty bad.

More Infographics.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Source: lowcosthealthinsurance

Petey the Dog Plays Basketball

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:06 PM PDT

Petey the Volleyball Dog now plays Basketball and is shooting some hoops. We are using a special Volleyball that is soft on his mouth. Also, he is wearing booties to protect his paw pads on the hard pavement. Enjoy!

Flight Attendants All Over the World

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:14 PM PDT

What's not to love about stewardesses? They're usually hot, they wear tight skirts and they bring drinks right to your seat. They will make your flight as comfortable as possible. These girls are gorgeous! I'd like to fly in their company.

United Arab Emirates, Emirates Airlines

United Arab Emirates, Ethiad Airlines

USA, Pan American World Airlines

South Korea, Korean Air

South Korea, T'way Airlines

Belgium, Brussels Airlines

Canada, Porter Airlines

Brazil, Azul Brazilian Airlines

Hungary, Wizz Air

Latvia, Air Baltic

Ukraine, Windrose Airlines

Netherlands, Martinair

Jordan, Royal Jordanian Airlines

France, Air France

Finland, Finnair

Indonesia, Pelita Air

Australia, Australian Airlines

Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines

Slovakia, Sky Europe

Germany, Lufthansa, attendants festive outfit for Oktoberfest

Germany, Lufthansa

Germany, Air Berlin

Bolivia, AeroSur

Malaysia, Airasia

Malaysia, Firefly

Malaysia

Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Airlines

China, Sichuan Airlines

China, China Southern Airlines

Thailand, Thai Airways

India, Kingfisher Airlines

Philippines, Cebu Pacific Air

United Kingdom, British Airways

Japan, All Nippon Airways

Brunei, Royal Brunei Airways

Russia, Аэрофлот

Singapore, Singapore Airlines

Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific

Hong Kong, Hong Kong Airlines

Italy, Air Italy

Switzerland, Swiss Airlines

Greece, Astra Airlines

The Evolution of Video Game Controllers

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:07 PM PDT

Video gaming has come a long way since the early days of Pong and Pac-man. We can now play affordable games of high calibre with 3D graphics and awesome interactivity in the comfort of our home, taking for granted the little and subtle improvements made to each and every consoles before becoming what they are today. In a way, the aggressive competition between companies of video game consoles had churned out the superior features of video gaming to bring to us the excellent quality we see today.

Source: coedmagazine

The Best SEO, Social + Content Strategy: Thought Leadership

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:34 PM PDT

Posted by randfish

I'm constantly recommending thought leadership as a marketing strategy and, frequently, getting a lot of pushback. It started when I was a consultant, but continues to this day. It usually goes something along the lines of:

Other Person: It's easy to be a thought leader in the fields you just showed, but what are the rest of us ordinary businesses supposed to do?

Me: Actually, I'm a strong believer that there's virtually no such thing as an industry or niche where thought leadership, interesting/share-worthy content and great inbound marketing can't work. Marketers said personal finance was boring until Mint. They thought online dating couldn't be a thought-leadership play until OKTrends. They said elevator installation couldn't have anything good, then Grant (an Australian firm) launched their great news section including awesome infographics like this one and earned #1 rankings for "Home Elevators."

Other Person: But those fields all have existing examples to draw inspiration from; I bet you can't name anyone in my particular practice of XYZ

Me: That's the best part! If no one else has risen up to claim the mantle of thought leadership; it's an even greater opportunity. The early adopters in thought leadership and content marketing often receive a disproportionate quantity of attention from links, social media, press, etc. ROI may take elbow grease, time and patience, but if you find a way to earn the attention of the web, you have a chance to build a truly amazing brand.

Other Person: There's no way we can invest that much energy and budget in thought leadership for marketing. We'd need to build a platform to host the content, we'd have to do design/artwork, we'd need to brainstorm and research the ideas, run them past layers of management for approval and

Me: In five minutes, you can have a Wordpress installation running in a subfolder of your site. You can do the brainstorming and execution by yourself at first - let's dream up three ideas together right now; I bet we can do it. If you really need design work, look how Cyrus did it here (for under $500). If you can't get executive approval; create your own blog/site, show them the success you're having and then 301 it over.

Other Person: Well, OK, maybe.

Me: Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful marketing story.

Other Person: Umm... My name is Steve.

Me: Oh. Sorry.

I recently gave this talk on the Death and Rebirth of SEO at Webcam in Bend:

The Death & Rebirth of SEO

And right after the talk, had very similar conversations to the above with several folks in attendance. To be fair, I completely understand how challenging the process of building thought leadership on the web can appear. But when you get into it, it's fun, addictive and surprisingly effective. There's no better way, in my opinion, to create a great brand on the web and simultaneously supercharge your social media, SEO and traffic-growth than thought leadership.

p.s. I've been enjoying a lot of shorter blog posts from folks like Brad Feld (whose post on thought leadership partially inspired this one) and Fred Wilson, so I thought I'd try my hand at slimming down my usual 1,000+ word count posts. Hopefully it's just as impactful/useful. Oh, and slide 65 in the deck above is a duplicate; sorry 'bout that.

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Now is Not the Time to Wave the White Flag on Clean Energy Jobs

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Now is Not the Time to Wave the White Flag on Clean Energy Jobs

Blog post from Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director

This morning, Chairman Cliff Stearns, who leads the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, told NPR that "We can't compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines."

This comment reflects exactly the sort of counterproductive defeatism that Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned against this weekend when he spoke to a group of America’s most promising young solar innovators:

“The United States faces a choice today: Will we sit on the sidelines and fall behind or will we play to win the clean energy race? Some say this is a race America can’t win. They’re ready to wave the white flag and declare defeat… Others say this is a race America shouldn’t even be in. They say we can’t afford to invest in clean energy. I say we can’t afford not to.

“It’s not enough for our country to invent clean energy technologies – we have to make them and use them too. Invented in America, made in America, and sold around the world – that’s how we’ll create good jobs and lead in the 21st century.”

The race for clean energy jobs and industries is on – and it is a race well worth winning. The International Energy Agency projects that in the coming decades, solar power could grow to more than 20 percent of the world’s electricity. Conservatively, this means that there is an economic opportunity worth trillions of dollars for whichever countries claim the lead. The global market for wind turbines is also growing exponentially.

But it’s not just the vast potential of jobs tomorrow – these industries employ a growing number of Americans today. In fact, business groups estimate that America’s solar industry accounts for about 100,000 jobs and the wind industry employs 75,000. Should we simply tell those workers that we’ve given up on them?

A study released last month showed that, in spite of the intense global competition, the U.S. remains a net global exporter of solar technology – with $5.6 billion in exports and an overall positive trade balance of $1.8 billion.

It is certainly true that China is playing to win. Last year alone, China offered its solar manufacturers $30 billion in government financing, vastly exceeding the U.S. investment. And China has overtaken the United States market share in solar power – a technology we invented.

Chairman Stearns and other members of his party in Congress believe that America cannot, or should not, try to compete for jobs in a cutting edge and rapidly growing industry. We simply disagree: the answer to this challenge is not to wave the white flag and give up on American workers. America has never declared defeat after a single setback – and we shouldn’t start now.

America’s entrepreneurs and innovators are still the very best in the world. Our workers are second to none – and we have never been afraid of a challenge. It’s time to do what we’ve always done in the face of a tough competitor: roll up our sleeves and recapture the lead. .

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