Thank you for your feedback and suggestions since we launched a new version of our site in early December. We’ve heard your feedback and have been working to address many of your suggestions. Starting in March, we’ll be fully transitioning everyone to this new experience. If you haven’t checked out the new StumbleUpon.com yet, we [...] Read More

This time last year I was talking about UserVoice getting it’s swagger back and laying the foundation for the future. I was also sitting on a big secret. That secret was unveiled a mere week later when we launched UserVoice Helpdesk, our lovable and beautiful helpdesk product that made answering customer service tickets fun and knowledgebase articles useful.

To celebrate the year we’ve had (and because I was told that posting infographics doubles your company’s valuation) we’ve included a birthday card below with a cornucopia of info about our journey to date.

But while birthdays are a time for reflection, they’re more importantly a time to party! And what’s a party without presents? Starting today you can get our fabulously simple & user friendly Helpdesk or Full Service products for FREE (on our Basic plan). Go get 'em! And because we love our old friends as just as much as our new ones, anyone currently on our Basic plans will be moved to Free on March 1st. The cake may be a lie, but this present certainly isn’t.

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Thanks, in no small part, to the success of Helpdesk, 2011 will be remembered as our year of doubling:

• We doubled the number of products adding Helpdesk to the already awesome Feedback (which we then packaged together as UserVoice Full Service).
• We doubled the number of UserVoicers from 10 to 20 beautifully quirky (but largely non-athletic) people.
• We doubled the number of offices: expanding operations to my home town of Raleigh, North Carolina (Hi mom!).
• We doubled the number, and amount, of outside funding with our Series B round of $1MM.

In all seriousness, it’s been a great year. I’d like to thank all of our customers for enabling us to achieve so much, our investors for their backing which is propelling us forward at even greater speeds and most importantly my team for putting up with me & for excelling under pressure. Corporations are not people but they are full of them. And in our case they make the whole thing worth doing. Thank you guys (and girls) so very much.

Pop pop!

-Richard White
CEO, UserVoice

PS If you’d like some kickass t-shirts or tattoos that tell how you really feel about your customers send us a tweet and we’ll hook you up.

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Vook brings just-in-time manufacturing to eBooks, streamlining production while letting creators build uniquely tweaked and styled and personalized titles. We put the theory to practice with our eBook for Mark Cuban—and today we continued the streak with our partner Jason Allen Ashlock, founder of the Movable Type literary agency, and sportswriter Alan Goldsher, who used [...] Related posts:

1. In Vogue: Alycea Ungaro and 15 Minute Everyday Pilates Day by Day
2. Digital Publishing At The Gates of Horn & Ivory
3. Cost cutting = Innovation.

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With over 250 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeet, we wanted to give you some tips for connecting with the folks you meet at your city’s photowalk!

InstaMeets are a great way to get to know the people in your hometown using Instagram. To help you branch out and get the conversation flowing with your fellow Instagrammers, we’ve put together a few tips to keep in mind before, during, and after your photowalk.

Before

• Bring nametags: Hand out nametags and ask everyone to write down their name & username. It helps connect faces to photos!
• Use a hashtag: Ask everyone to tag their photos with the same hashtag so everyone can easily find each other’s photos on Instagram. We recommend making your tag unique by using the name of your city in your tag, such as #instawalksydney or #instawalktoronto.

During

Chances are you’ll have a lot in common with the people around you. Be sure to use the opportunity to get to know them! Here are some questions you might want to ask to get things started:

• What’s your favorite filter?
• Who are your favorite Instagrammers? (Find your stats.)
• Do you know about that Instagrammer who takes a photo of her pug every day (or some other fantastic person to follow)?
• Did you know Floyd Mayweather is on Instagram? (Find more notable users.)
• How do you keep up with your Instagram feed when you aren’t attached to your iPhone? (Take a look at these options.)
• Have you ever made magnets/postcards/books out of your photos? which third-party Instagram printers are your favorites?

After

• Follow your new friends! Be sure to check out the tag page for your city and follow the people you met on your photowalk.
• Don’t wait for the next Worldwide InstaMeet! Instagrammers in cities around the world get together all the time to go on photowalks or just meet up in a bar. You can organize a big meetup in your city or just go out shooting with a few of the new friends you made any time of the year.

InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

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A few months ago a great article was passed around the UserVoice chat room about why no-reply email addresses are terrible. We all thoroughly agreed. And then we realized that we were using no-reply addresses.

Previously, when you updated the status of an idea on UserVoice Feedback, it sent an email out to all voters telling them what the status change was. Hooray! ...with a no-reply email address. Ew.

We’ve long argued that getting customer feedback isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. These are people who want to help you succeed. That’s a special thing, and you need to reward them by listening to and acting on their feedback. UserVoice is designed to help you do exactly that. But getting in the way of those customers responding to your status updates isn’t following that mindset. So we’re done with it.

When updating a status, you’ll now be able to choose the reply-to address for the status email. And if you have UserVoice Full Service, you’ll be able to choose from any email address in your Helpdesk system. No-reply is gone. Good riddance!

So far we haven’t seen any problems, but the first thing people ask is “what if I get a bunch of bounce notifications or ‘out-of-office” autoreplies. The good news? It’s actually pretty easy to set up a rule to prevent those from cluttering your inbox.

You certainly COULD set the address to no-reply@yourcompany.com. But we urge you to embrace this additional opportunity to connect with your customers.

Death to no-reply!

-Evan Hamilton
Community Manager, UserVoice

"No" photo courtesy of fotogail.

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New versions of both Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android are available today. Both apps bring back high-demand features, including the swipe shortcut, and they also introduce new design and functionality improvements. Here’s a rundown.

Both apps

• Swipe shortcut: Swipe a Tweet in your home timeline to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile, without leaving your timeline.
• “Find friends”: We’ve added a confirmation alert when you select “Find friends”. This notification more clearly and explicitly messages the fact that when you upload your contacts’ email addresses and phone numbers, you can quickly find which of your friends are on Twitter (that is, if they’ve chosen to be discoverable by email or phone number).

Twitter for iPhone

• Copy and paste: We’ve returned the ability to copy and paste the text of Tweets and user profiles. Just press and hold to copy.
• Link love: The “share” feature used to just give you the option to copy or email a link to a Tweet. Now, if there’s a link within a Tweet, you’ll see the option to tweet, copy or mail that link, or you can choose to read it later. (Select a “Read Later Service” under Settings > Advanced.)
• Pressing and holding links provides similar options, along with the ability to open the link in Safari.
• Direct messages: We updated the design for Direct Messages and returned the ability to mark all DMs as read. Simply tap the check mark in the lower right corner.
• Font size settings: Change the font size under Settings > Advanced.

Twitter for Android

• New devices: Twitter for Android is now optimized to run on Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as on the Kindle Fire (available today through the Amazon Appstore) and the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet (available February 23 though the Barnes & Noble NOOK Store).

You can download Twitter for iPhone today from the App Store and Twitter for Android from Android Market. Read More

Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes & hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @jayzombie and look for a photo from her announcing the weekend’s project every Friday.

This weekend’s theme was #tinyhorizon, which asked participants to pull back their focus and capture a big sky with a small horizon line. Every Monday we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest on Instagram here.

Photos by timothyschenck, angeline716, clintus, shauna610, ashleycakesomara, diyosacarter, darmix87, jackiejaszka, cyrenakh, kkuiper, analeko & hiimanet.

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There are few things more annoying than getting a parking ticket. Wait – we thought of one – forgetting to pay said parking ticket. This is the situation that a TaskPoster found herself in. A few weeks ago, she got a parking ticket and, unfortunately, forgot to pay the fine on time. Consequently, the Los Angeles [...] Read More

We’ve had the same mantra at Vook since we launched: 100 titles the first year, 1,000 titles the second, 10,000 the third, and onwards to one million. Working with publishing partners, authors, agents and our own network of writers, we produced some 1,000 + titles in our first two years, hitting our goal. Now, by extending [...] Related posts:

1. How to Make a Million Dollars
2. Vook’s Love+Support Network
3. Vook: Extending the Platform

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Name: Ed Droste, @edroste

Bio:  I’m in a band. We’re called Grizzly Bear. I love travel almost as much as music.

Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA

Singer-songwriter Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear is on Cape Cod with his bandmates recording a new album. Ed has no computer with him, but he does have his phone. He uses Instagram to share small glimpses into the band’s recording process. On his feed, you’ll see late-night photos from the studio as well as beautiful shots of the landscapes that surround their isolated Cape Cod house. Together, Ed’s photos tell the story of his album’s creation.

While recording, my bandmates and I are staying in an old drafty house on Cape Cod, without neighbors for miles. My bedroom often gets the heavy SE winds. The door is old and barely stays shut on a still day, so I’ve learned each night to rig it shut with a heavy boot tied to the knob, draped over an old chair, that’s then pulled back. It’s done the trick so far but is generally annoying!

I first started using Instagram as a way to share photos with friends while on the road in SE Asia. It wasn’t until this winter that I started to poke around more and discover all these amazing other people taking fantastic photos. You leave a few “this is great” comments here and there and sometimes a conversation strikes up. This is how I came to “meet” @trashhand, who not only has been so supportive of my photos but also helped me navigate the rocky road of editing a picture. He follows so few people I decided to check out some of the people he follows and got to discover amazing work from a variety of people, some of whom I enjoy saying a friendly hello to daily. I also follow friends back home and some fans who’ve commented on my photos and whose photos I liked.

After music, travel is my number one passion. I’m lucky to have a job that allows me time to travel and takes me to new places. I love feeling lost and disoriented and out of my element and am always game to try whatever street food, even if I do get a lil’ sick. I don’t own a house or apartment or a car. I’m very happy constantly moving and get restless easy, so I choose to spend a lot of my time traveling and exploring. I’ll never get sick of it, and luckily my husband @chadmcphail feels the same way. I plan to share photos from life on the road once we’re finished recording.

Be sure to follow Ed’s Grizzly Bear bandmates Chris Bear (@crbear), Daniel Rossen (@drossenbro), and Chris Taylor (@cee_taylor) on Instagram for more photos!

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For the past week New York City was the center of attention in the fashion world while New York Fashion Week was underway. With over 300 designers presenting their fall 2012 collections, there were plenty of behind the scenes and runway photographs shared with Instagram through the tag #nyfw. We were even the lucky recipients of a Fashion 2.0 Award for the “Next Big Thing in Tech”!

Take a look at some of our favorite images from NYFW 2012 below.

Photos by thewallgroup, amtendler, melissachrisp, bfa_nyc, oscarprgirl, omgitsmeg, wsj, harrybeeenyc, bryanteslava, _frommetoyou, eholmeswsj & shamphel.

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As you may have seen, last week we announced that we’ve added hosted HTML5 services to our managed backend. The decision to add this functionality wasn’t just to build a more flexible platform for developers – it is the next … Read more → Read More

As you may have heard, we have added support for HTML5. This addition now ties frontend capabilities to StackMob’s powerful backend service and enables you to build your entire application on the StackMob platform. Here is a two minute tutorial … Read more → Read More

We had two great pieces of news this week: We released the results of our closed beta and we announced our relationship with the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses to extend Vook to its members at a reduced rate. We’re particularly proud of this deal, because it means more of the small presses we [...] Related posts:

1. MotherVook 2.0, our digital printing press
2. Vook On Fire
3. THANKSGIVING GRATITUDE

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Congrats to new writing and photo contest winners: Keely Herrick, Jacy Sequeira Brooks , Brendan McGuigan, Vanessa Kirkpatrick.

Photo by Jacy Sequeira Brooks   

See the rest of the winners and enter this week’s contest here.

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Successful small business owners intuitively know how to build meaningful relationships with their customers. They were the first to use Twitter to talk with consumers in real time, and their creativity demonstrated Twitter’s potential as a marketing platform. Today, some of the most effective marketing campaigns we see come from small, local, or Internet-only businesses—like the mouth-watering photos of @VanillaMoonBake’s cupcakes, or the Tweet contests hosted by @glennztees to promote their latest T-shirt designs.


Soon, small businesses based in the United States will have the chance to take their Twitter marketing efforts to a new level. Starting in late March, we will introduce a new advertising offering that makes it simple for companies of any size to grow their businesses using our Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts products.

We’ve partnered with American Express to make it easy for small business owners to advertise on Twitter. American Express Cardmembers and merchants based in the U.S. will be invited to try this new advertising solution before anyone else, and American Express will give $100 in free advertising to the first 10,000 eligible businesses to sign up.

Starting today, American Express Cardmembers and merchants can register to participate in the initial introduction of this new offering via ads.twitter.com/amex. We will launch this new offering more widely later this year.

Sign up here to try this new ad solution. Read More

With almost 200 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeet, we wanted to provide some photography tips to help you make your city’s photowalk unique!

Subjects

Select a subject that is easily discoverable on your photowalk’s route. Can you plan the walk so you pass only tall buildings? Are you able to find multiple windows with hand-painted letters? Perhaps there’s a lot of street art in your city! Pre-planning your walk, picking up on common subjects, then providing that subject as a theme will challenge photowalk participants to see subjects that may otherwise go unnoticed!

Filters

Utilize only one filter on every shared photograph. While this can be a huge challenge, having a visually cohesive theme will result in a beautiful hashtag pool for your city’s photowalk, as well as your personal photo feed. Try asking participants to utilize only the new Sierra filter with a border, then share any obstacles you come across as a result while you walk along!

Props

Photograph the same prop interacting with multiple scenes. Ask participants to bring similarly themed props to the photowalk, like vinyl toys or fake moustaches, and provide them with unique situations that they should photograph their props in. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a photowalk hashtag filled with mini toy dinosaurs taking over a city?! The only way to answer that question is with an all caps “YES!”.

These ideas aren’t just great for creating a fun and interesting photowalk - they can also be applied to your own photography! Challenge yourself to stick to one (or several) of these themes for an entire month. Not only will your Instagram profile look beautiful, but you’ll likely learn a thing or two about photography in the process!

InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

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We’re happy to announce that MongoLab is now available as an add-on to AppHarbor, the fully-hosted .NET Platform as a Service provider. Greetings adventurers! Now that MongoLab has docked in AppHarbor we’d like to show you how quickly you can assemble a cloudworthy MongoDB C# web application. AppHarbor compiles your application directly from a .NET solution [...] Read More

As a general rule, whatever percentage you think your test coverage is, it isn’t. Whatever amount of the known surface area you’re covering, there’s going to be an exciting swath of things you didn’t realize that you need to test. … Continue reading → Read More

In December, we launched a new version of Twitter. It’s been available for mobile phones, via the mobile web, Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, and we’ve been rolling it out steadily to Twitter.com. Now, everyone has access to it. A few of the highlights:

• Click any Tweet in your timeline to expand it to see photos, videos, retweets, favorites, and more.
  
  Twitter.com shortcut: You can quickly close all expanded Tweets by pressing “L” (as in Larry) on your keyboard.
• Connect is your way to keep conversations going. It’s the place to see who has followed or mentioned you, or retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets.
  
  Twitter.com shortcut: Type “GC” (as in “Go Connect”), to jump to the Connect tab.
  
• Discover lets you tap into a stream of useful and entertaining information, customized just for you. When you use Discover, you’ll see results reflecting your interests. These are based on your current location, what you follow and what’s happening in the world.
  
  Twitter.com shortcut: “GD” (as in “Go Discover”) takes you to the Discover tab. If you want to go directly to Activity, enter “GA”.
  
• Embed Tweets on your website by copying and pasting one line of code.
  
• Take a tour of the new experience.
  
• Check out the new Twitter brand pages from accounts like @NPRNews, @Audi and others.

By the way, you can see more shortcuts by typing “?” when you’re on Twitter.com. Read More

Instagram Tips is a series that features Instagram-related pro-tips for both novice and expert users alike! Check out the Support Center, help.instagram.com, for more tips & help for Instagram, including basic information on how to use #hashtags.

Adding tags to your photos is a great way to find new followers and share your photos with more people. But hashtags can be tricky. To get the most out of them, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. We’ll use this photo of a beautiful 1966 Volkswagen van as an example!

Be Specific

Choosing specific tags will help you connect with other like-minded people on Instagram. For this photo, instead of using the tag #van, we could use #vwvan. The photo will be added to that highly targeted tag page, where other Volkswagen lovers will be able to find the photo more easily (without sifting through photos of Toyota Siennas and Chevy Astros).

Be Relevant

Make it easy for other like-minded Instagrammers to find you by making sure your tags describe your photo. Using very general tags like #photo might get you a few likes, but with over 700,000 photos tagged #photo, it isn’t the best way to make your photos stand out and connect with the people most like you. Relevant tags will help you attract new followers who will take a genuine interest in your photos and continue liking and commenting on your photos over time. For the photo above, in addition to #vwbus, we could use the tag #volkswagen.

Be Observant

Pay attention to the other hashtags used on photos that use the same tag as yours. You may discover a popular hashtag you hadn’t thought of on your own. For example, on photos tagged #volkswagen, we can see that many of those photos also use the tag #vw. When you do a search for those tags, you’ll find out that Instagrammers use #vw to describe their Volkswagen photos more than twice as often as they use #volkswagen!

After tagging the photo with relevant and specific tags, you may also find that people sharing photos similar to yours are using even more specialized tags that you hadn’t thought of originally. For our photo, we found that photos tagged #vw and #vwvan also use #vwbus.

Do you have any tips for tagging your photos? Reblog this and let us know in the comments!

The photo at the top of this post was taken by jameswagner.

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Today I’m excited to announce that StackMob is launching a hosted HTML5 solution as part of our end-to-end platform for application development. This marks an important milestone for StackMob and for all the developers and businesses using our platform. When … Read more → Read More

One of StumbleUpon’s most popular bloggers shares her latest Valentine’s Day Likes that can come in handy tonight – whether you’re spending V-Day with a special someone or just yourself. This year with everything that’s available on StumbleUpon, the usual flowers and candy just won’t do. Neither will saying you don’t believe in celebrating! You [...] Read More

Whether or not you were able to watch the #Grammys live on Sunday night, you probably heard about the biggest Twitter moments. Here’s a quick look at how the night played out in Tweets.

• People sent 10,901 Tweets per second (TPS) as Adele won Record of the Year — the peak TPS moment of the night. 
• “Grammys” was mentioned in more than 5 million Tweets on Sunday between noon and midnight PT. 
• The most mentioned artists (in descending order) during that same 12-hour period were: @OfficialAdele, @ChrisBrown, @NickiMinaj, @Rihanna, Whitney Houston.

"Ooh! A bit of snot." - @officialAdele choking up then laughing and wiping nose during her acceptance speech for Album of the Year #Grammys

— Twitter Music (@TwitterMusic) February 13, 2012

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How I Shoot is a series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking processes. This week, @dylanisbell shares his tips for taking reflection photos.

Camera: iPhone 4S

Vantage Point: For me, New York City is like one big fun house of reflections. My attention is constantly drawn to all the storefront windows with the dynamic ways the light bounces off buildings or spills through alleyways. Windows give you a lot of options, but as a starting point I find that if I like the scene behind me (the scene that’s being reflected) and the scene on the other side of the window, then I start to move my camera and body around to knock out certain elements that I want to reveal or hide. So think of your phone and body as a layer mask that can either hide or reveal an element.

Shooting: As far as what catches my eye, I would say New York City does. I’m pretty lucky  I guess, with all that’s going on in the city with people, light, reflections. I just try to pay attention and hone it all in and capture as much of it in one frame as I can.  When I approach these reflections, I do so with a motivation of what I think is possible, but what also attracts me to these reflections is the unknown. I am just as surprised by what I find as I hope others are. Without waxing too philosophical, for me these reflections resemble a bending of the rules of what is known to my basic visual perception of life. It’s kind like I’m trying to figure out or communicate with all these elements. 

Editing: I always use the built-in camera app to take my pictures. After I take the picture, I have a few apps that I might use to edit it. I usually use Camera+ to bring out features in the image, and I use Lux to bring out elements in the photo that otherwise might get lost. Finally, I choose an Instagram filter and then share the photo.

Want to share your advice for taking photos? Reblog this post and let us know in the comments! Or include a tip in the caption on your Instagram photo and use the tag #howishoot.

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We've added fifty more levels to Aim For The Nuts - courtesy of one of our team members: FriendOfTheColorblind There's also a option in game to... Read More

It’s been 8 weeks since we released a beta version of the new StumbleUpon, and now that we’ve had some time to take in all the feedback we wanted to give a quick update on what’s next. First off, I’d like to thank everyone who has given the new StumbleUpon a try. This was the [...] Read More

We haven’t done a formal scientific test, but we’d wager that couples who Stumble together stay together. We at least know that StumbleUpon brings soul mates together in ways they never expected, and StumbleUpon has even been used by one user to propose to his girlfriend. But we’re curious to learn more about the similarities [...] Read More

I was sitting in an executive’s office at a major publisher last week. We couldn’t access the wireless network — in fact, there didn’t seem to be a wireless network — so I grabbed a nearby Ethernet cord and plugged it into my Internet port and immediately the port started smoking and the room filled with [...] Related posts:

1. A VOOK PLATFORM UPDATE
2. Inside the Vook Beta
3. EBOOKS FOR EVERYONE

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At the end of the Super Bowl last weekend, we launched Twitter’s first-ever Ad Scrimmage competition. For a week following the game, Twitter users headed to adscrimmage.twitter.com for a chance to view and vote via Tweet for their favorite Super Bowl ads. And today, the results are in! Congratulations to Samsung’s #votefornote campaign.

Calling all fans of our big ad, there's still time to Believe in Love with a #VoteForNote in the #AdScrimmage! smgm.us/wpP

— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) February 10, 2012

In decreasing order of the percentage of the vote they earned, these are the runners-up:

• Disney #avengersad

• H&M #beckhamforhm

• Mars/M&Ms #VoteMsBrown

• Kia #KiaBigGameAd

You can view all the winning ads here.

This year’s Super Bowl was one of the biggest sports events ever experienced on Twitter and the ads are a big part of what drives the conversation. There’s more info on the Twitter Ads Blog about the program and the winning campaign. Read More

Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes & hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @jayzombie and look for a photo from her announcing the weekend’s project every Friday.

In honor of Valentine’s Day this weekend’s theme was #portraitsoflove, which asked participants to grab a friend, family member, or significant other & take their portrait. Every Monday we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest on Instagram here.

Photos by idly_bri, jess_marvelous, diejaco, mermaidism, orangesparrow, srt4shawn, scottatlynda, a_jassin, amrichardson, elanuroglu, nalismo & johnnyhifi.

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We’re proud to announce the results of our Vook Creation Contest. Our team argued over their favorite picks all week—more than 500 titles were in consideration. The range of work shows what you + Vook can do! The winners will receive $1000 worth of Vook Marketing Promotion—and the overall winner also receives a free Vook [...] Related posts:

1. Free Apps for “You Day”
2. WHY IS THIS NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER NOT AN EBOOK?
3. 24 Hours That Changed the World

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Last year, we added the option to always use HTTPS when accessing Twitter.com on the web. This setting makes your Twitter experience more secure by protecting your information, and it’s especially helpful if you use Twitter over an unsecured Internet connection like a public wi-fi network.

Now, HTTPS will be on by default for all users, whenever you sign in to Twitter.com. If you prefer not use it, you can turn it off on your Account Settings page. HTTPS is one of the best ways to keep your account safe and it will only get better as we continue to improve HTTPS support on our web and mobile clients.

Read more about how to keep your account secure here: support.twitter.com/articles/76036…

— Safety (@safety) October 18, 2011

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Instagram Tips is a series that features Instagram-related pro-tips for both novice and expert users alike!  Check out the Support Center, help.instagram.com, for more tips & help for Instagram.

If you missed the news, Instagram v2.1 is out and we’ve introduced a new feature called Lux. With a single tap, photos that are underexposed or lack contrast are instantly transformed. We’ve found that Lux is especially perfect for landscapes & cityscapes. Check out the example photos below to get a better idea of when Lux works best!

An underexposed iPhone photo of a building due to poor lighting from shade is transformed into a lovely detailed shot. Lux balances the exposure, provides much needed brightness, and the image really comes to life.

This already beautiful photo is significantly improved with Lux. The colors become brighter, details in the sign and tower are brought out, and the contrast in the sky makes the clouds pop.

The original image is your standard mobile phone photo - decent exposure, good color, and plenty of detail. But with the addition of Lux the colors become more vibrant and you begin to notice details that weren’t visible before. Lux truly transforms your photos …

… and with the addition of a filter, they can become even more beautiful!

Be sure to tag any of your photos that utilize this new feature with #lux in order to share your photos’ stunning enhancements!

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Good news! Instagram v2.1 is now available in the App Store! Here’s what’s new:

New Feature: Lux

We’ve given you a new way to instantly transform the look and feel of your photos. In just one tap, Lux works its magic by making your photos more vibrant and bringing out details you couldn’t see before. Use it with a filter or without.

New Filter: Sierra

We’ve added a new filter!

Simplified + Improved UI

We’ve simplified the look of Instagram. The improved header and menu buttons in this release are the first steps towards making it easier to understand and interact with our app.

Tappable Notifications

Now, when you tap on an Instagram notification in the iOS Notification Center, you’re brought directly to the relevant photo, comment or user profile page in the app.

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As you may have heard, the product team and I have been busy preparing our API for its public release. Well, today, I am excited to announce that the TaskRabbit API is now available! Third-party applications now have the ability to integrate with TaskRabbit’s API, allowing their users to seamlessly outsource their to-do workflow via [...] Read More

This Sunday night the 54th annual GRAMMYs will air on CBS. As with so many other live events on TV, one of the best ways to experience the show is to follow the conversation on Twitter. When the show starts, use #GRAMMYs to see what the world is saying about the performances, the nominees and winners, who’s wearing what and lots more.

We’ve teamed up with over 25 artists across several genres including pop, electronic and indie rock to bring you GRAMMY commentary you won’t see anywhere else. These “couch commentators” will be tweeting what they think about the show as we’re all watching. Check out the list and follow your favorites:

@afinefrenzy, @greysonchance, @steveaoki, @st_vincent, @thewantedmusic, @michellebranch, @mrchrisrene, @piatoscano, @teganandsara, @haleyreinhart, @skylargrey, @karminmusic, @preciousweapons, @erichutchinson, @neontrees, @ChevelleInc, @theglitchmob, @jfkmstrkrft, @crystalmethod, @tranquilmammoth, @graffiti6, @tanlines, @sebby_g, @jasonderulo, @neonhitch, @EricTurner

Finally, our own @TwitterMusic will be on the ground, live tweeting. Coldplay (@Coldplay), Katy Perry (@KatyPerry) and David Guetta (@DavidGuetta) will all be performing and tweeting from the event and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will also be live-tweeting from the theatre as well; he’s @rhcpchad. Read More

This past week Europe was hit hard with extremely cold temperatures reaching as low as 35 degrees Celsius below zero! As seen in images shared with Instagram places like France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were hit hardest with the icy conditions.

With weather this harsh, we hope those affected by the cold manage to stay safe & warm!

Photos by datsallfolks, loez, milligina, davideterenzi, phranssoua, celestino84, joyash, tranq72, nickchall, throwingmarbles, rickgrad1 & footprints3011.

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An Introduction to Lenses in Scalaz One of the simplest constructs to understand in Scalaz is the Lens. But because of its simplicity, I didn’t realize the practical usefulness of lenses in Scala until I came across a problem whose … Read more → Read More

Twitter began as an SMS service. Today, we continue to build out SMS capability because we recognize the importance and value of making our service available to every person on the planet. No matter what device people use — from the most advanced smartphone to the simplest feature phone — people around the world should be able to send and read Tweets.

Of course, there may be times when people cannot access SMS. We’ve been working on some solutions when that occurs:

Satellite operators
We’ve partnered with the two largest satellite operators, Iridium and Thuraya, to give their subscribers access to Twitter SMS. Now, even if phone lines and the Internet are inaccessible — for example, in a war zone or after a natural disaster — people will be able to share news and stay informed via Twitter.

Long codes
We work with as many carriers as we can to support SMS around the world. If your carrier does not currently support Twitter SMS, you can still Tweet. Just use one of our long codes.

Here’s a full list of mobile carriers and satellite providers that support Twitter SMS, and as always, you can follow @twittermobile to find out when even more carriers offer it. Read More

How I Shoot is a series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking processes. This week, @drsmoothdeath shares his tips for finding and photographing beautiful classic cars, which he’s collected in his #morninautos series.

Camera: iPhone 4

Vantage Point: Obviously I’m always across the street from my subjects, but the question is whether I can get the whole car in the frame without leaning on someone else’s car too excessively or stomping someone’s garden to a withered mess.

Shooting: I always use my iPhone camera and do most of my shooting on my bike. I generally have a planned route in my head of neighborhoods I want to explore — either areas I haven’t shot yet, or where there is a regular turnaround of parked cars. I have the advantage of living in one of the best cities for older model cars (thank you, Portland!), which gives me a lot of beautiful subjects to choose from.

While riding, I’ll slow through every intersection looking down as far as I can see on either side of the street, scanning for older cars or just a fin or headlight sticking out. Once I find a car, I’ll look directly across the street to see if I have room to get the entire vehicle in the frame. If all looks good, I’ll head down the street and set myself up. If I can’t center-up, or the shot looks funny somehow, I move on and find something else in hopes of finding the car again sometime (I’ve waited months to see a car again!). And if I climbed a hill or had to pedal hard through traffic, I may need to slow my heart rate down first by breathing slowly in and out to get the “shake” out of my hands and arms (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, run in place for a couple minutes and try holding your phone steady. Not easy eh?). I like the pic to feel as quiet and calm as possible, so I try and pass on any cars with too much going on in the background, like other parked cars.

Editing: No real editing secrets here, just good ol’ fashioned cropping, and I usually end up using the Rise filter. The only other thing before posting is finding out what the car is and what year it might be to include in my caption.

Want to share your advice for taking photos? Reblog this post and let us know in the comments! Or include a tip in the caption on your Instagram photo and use the tag #howishoot

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Devoted StumbleUpon fans who are also fans of the NFL find their allegiances divided every year when the Super Bowl rolls around. But the good news is that StumbleUpon’s mobile apps (for iPhone, iPad, and Android) help mitigate this conflict as fans find that they can Stumble on the couch or at a bar at [...] Read More

Last week we hit a very exciting milestone.

After less than a year since we released UserVoice Helpdesk, there have officially been one million tickets received by Helpdesk accounts.

We've sent the account that received the millionth ticket this very special certificate to thank them for being part of this. Keep your eyes peeled...it could be arriving in your mailbox!

This is the work of an extremely talented, dedicated, and growing team. But it’s also a sign that an increasing number of companies are demanding a better experience, both for their team and for their customers. These are people who want to have a conversation with their customers...and they want their tools to make this easy.

A hearty congrats to our team and thank you to our customers. We’re going to keep making this thing better for you.

-Richard White
CEO, UserVoice

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Our platform’s a work in progress—and it always will be. The only technology that’s ever ‘done’ is a technology that’s obsolete (insert lazy joke about the printing press here).  As new file types (ePub3, KF8) emerge, we’ll be adapting Vook to produce them quickly, and we constantly adjust to keep track of changes and updates [...] Related posts:

1. Digital Publishing At The Gates of Horn & Ivory
2. A VOOK PLATFORM UPDATE
3. Vook On Fire

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TrialPay co-founder and CPO Terry Angelos will be participating on a panel titled, “Monetizing Social Games on Facebook: Credits, Today and Tomorrow” at Inside Social Apps on February 8. The panel will address current monetization trends in the developer ecosystem, what the roadmap looks like for 2012 and how Facebook Credits will continue to evolve [...] Read More

Anthony Green is a longtime favorite here at Formspring HQ. He’s passionate about his fans and loves responding to questions on Formspring. To celebrate his new album (and awesome new video, Get Yours While You Can), we’ll be asking a question from our Formspring account tomorrow morning with a link to Anthony’s website, where you [...] Read More

Are you ready for the 4th Worldwide InstaMeet?! We’re very excited to announce that on Sunday, March 11th, you’ll have the chance to get together with other Instagrammers in your town by organizing your very own meetup!

This time around, we’re asking everyone to go on a photowalk together. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing tips for your upcoming photowalk, as well as featuring recent InstaMeets in order to spark some creativity & encourage you to join in by organizing or participating in an InstaMeet in your hometown.

How to Participate

1. Go to meetup.com/instagram and find a meetup going on in your city, then click “Count me in.” If you don’t see an upcoming event in your hometown, start one!
2. Help spread the word on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and wherever else you can! See our InstaMeets page for more tips!
3. Join up with other Instagrammers on your city’s meetup day, get inspired and make new friends!

The photos above were taken at recent InstaMeet photowalks! The photo on the left was taken by @instagramnyc on the #warbywalk, and the photo on the right was taken by @cinemaone during #instahuntsf.

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