Microsoft starts selling its Surfaces through resellers

Microsoft is expanding distribution of its Surface tablet/PC devices via authorized distributors and resellers, company officials announced on July 1.

Starting in the U.S., Microsoft is authorizing CDW, CompuCom, En Pointe, Insight, PC Connection, PCM, Softchoice, Softmart, Software House International and Zones to sell Surface Pro and RT devices. "Over the next few months," Microsoft officials said they will authorize commercial distributors and resellers in more countries.

Microsoft also plans to expand its education offer for the Surface RT -- offering devices for $199 via qualifying schools and universities purchasing direct from Microsoft -- into the commercial channel starting with the U.S. resellers "in the coming weeks," officials said today.

Authorized Surface resellers will be able to offer Microsoft's extended warranty, as well as their own services, including asset tagging, custom imaging, kitting, onsite service and support, device recycling and data protection, according to Microsoft.

When Microsoft launched the Surface RT, it originally launched in eight markets, only three of which had physical stores. Microsoft officials said Surfaces are currently available in 29 markets and 10,000-plus physical stores worldwide.

Microsoft also unveiled on July 1 a new independent software vendor (ISV) program, AppsForSurface, which will be providing devices and funding for app design of key enterprise apps for Surface and Window 8. ISVs already signed up include Citrix, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sage and healthcare developer Airstrip, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft has been stepping up its Surface discount deals as of late. There's still no word on when the Softies plan to add new Surface devices to its current mix, but sources have indicated that Microsoft plans to field an eight-inch mini Surface device some time this year. There's no official word as to when or even if Microsoft plans to add Haswell-based Intel Surface devices to its line-up.

Update: It does look as though the 256 GB Surface Pro models will be added to the Surface stable. CDW has a page listing them for $1,199.99 (with no cover), with availability noted as four to six days. The 256 GB model debuted in Japan in June.

Source : zdnet

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These Pics Could Be the Colorful New Entry-Level iPhone

This could be the new low-cost iPhone, encased in plastic instead of metal and adorned with cartoonish colors.

So far it's an enigma wrapped in a rumor based on speculation, but there's a bit of evidence behind this alleged leak of the low-cost iPhone.

On Saturday, a picture of a green version of this alleged iPhone surfaced, but now there's an additional leak. In these pics from Chinese site Weiphone.com, the green shell has found a couple of friends in yellow and pinkish red, all adorned with an official-looking iPhone logo at the bottom and the iconic Apple logo in its usual position.

They're all shaped like the iPhone 5, and here's another tantalizing piece of evidence: Website NoWhereElse.fr [French] compared these shells with the alleged iPhone 5S motherboard leaked in mid-June, and found that all of the attachment points match up perfectly:

The idea of a cheaper iPhone is compelling — analysts say it could grab 11% of the low-end smartphone market within its first year on the market. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in April that an entry-level iPhone might ship this September, and he thinks its price tag might be around $300 unsubsidized. That price is a far cry from the $649 of an iPhone 5.

The lively colors will certainly appeal to those who have become bored with the choice of only a black or white iPhone. In addition, those who think the current iPhone 5 is too fragile might be attracted to this plastic casing, and such a construction could be significantly lighter at the same time.

What do you think? Are these leaked photos the real thing, or is it all a hoax? Let us know in the comments.

Source : mashable

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Install Android 4.3 On Your Samsung Galaxy S4 Right Now!

Download and try your hands on Android 4.3 on your UI topped Samsung Galaxy S4 with this leaked testware of Android 4.3!

Saturday, June 29, 2013:  Sammobile recently managed to get hold of the very first test build firmware of the upcoming Android 4.3 for the Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505G). The developers of the website installed the firmware on their standard Snapdragon topped Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) and reportedly experienced some amazing outputs. 

The Android 4.3 testware which is supposed to be tested on ther Google Play Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is completely functional even on the basic Snapdragon layered version of the Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505). According to Sammobile, about 100 per cent of the sum features were working on the UI layered handset even without making any changes to the firmware.

The Sammobile has additionally shared the testware for the users to try their hands on! Below are the two links. You can install either one of the two and get going with the installation of Android 4.3 on your Galaxy S4.

1. Android-4.3-I9505GUEUBMFP-Odexed-I9505.zip

2. Android-4.3-I9505GUEUBMFP-Deodexed-I9505.zip

Things to know before you install the testware:

- The testware is not flashable via Odin.
- Installing a leaked version can void your warranty.
- You should try your hands on the testware only if you hold the skills to flash a custom ROM
- Try this at your own risk

Firmware details:
Android version: 4.3
Build ID: JWR66N
PDA: I9505GUEUBMFP
CSC: I9505GXARBMFP
Build Date: 26 June 2013
Changelist: 968842

Device Requirements:
- Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505)
- Custom Recovery

Instructions:
- Copy Google Play Edition ROM to your internal SD Card
- Enter Recovery (Power + Volume Up + Home)
- Do a Wipe/Factory Reset (Necessary due to new Android version)
- Flash Google Play Edition ROM
- Reboot your device!  

Source: efytimes.com 

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How to Update Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with Cyanogen Mod 10.1 Custom Jellybean 4.2.2 Firmware

New update from Cyanogen Mod has recently come for Samsung galaxy note 2 N7100. This new custom build has the latest firmware base as android 4.2.2 jellybean. More important factor about this release is the stability of this CM 10.1 build. According to developers review it’s the highly stable build of CM 10.1 ever for the galaxy note 2.

As a custom update, it need root access and unlock boot loader. So if you are an advance user and usually prefers custom updates then this firmware build will give you a lot.

Now I will mention you the easy tutorial to apply this update in your galaxy note 2.

Requirements for the Update

• Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with root access and bootloader unlocked
• CM 10.1 jellybean 4.2.2 firmware package [Direct Download]
• Google Apps package
• Follow preparing guide
• Enable USB debugging mode

Disclaimer: Follow this firmware flashing guide at your own risk. Androidflip won’t be responsible in case your device gets damaged in any other way during the process.

Instruction to Install CM 10.1 Custom ROM

1. First connect the phone with PC using USB cable and copy both the firmware and Google apps packages in phone’s SD card.

2. Disconnect the phone and boot it in recovery mode by-

• Turn off the phone
• Hold down Volume up+ Home+ Power button together to reboot

For primary users:- Follow below key configuration to work in recovery mode.
To move up/down- Use Volume up/ Volume down button
To Choose an option- Use Home/ Power button

3. In recovery mode first clear out the cache and wipe out the data using options wipe cache partition and wipe data/ factory reset respectively.

4. Now flash the firmware and then the Google apps packages (zip) using- install zip from sd card>> choose zip from sd card. 

5. After flashing these both packages, return to main recovery menu and select reboot system now so the phone can reboot in new firmware.

Note:- If your device get stuck between the process or failed to reboot to the new custom ROM, then just pull out the phone’s battery and reinsert it, and task the whole procedure again.

Custom Cyanogen Mod 10.1 Jellybean 4.2.2 firmware has installed now.

Have Fun :)

Source: androidflip.com

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OUYA Gaming Console Already Sold Out on Amazon

Well, that was quick. Just hours after going on sale in the U.S., Canada and the UK, the OUYA gaming console was already sold out Tuesday morning on Amazon, though other retailers still had it in stock.

Amazon, which was selling the device for $99, told customers that the item was temporarily out of stock. However, as of Tuesday morning, Target and Best Buy were still carrying OUYA. GameStop noted that the item was "currently unavailable."

OUYA launched on Kickstarter as an open gaming console that anyone could develop for or hack as they see fit, all for a $99 price tag. The Kickstarter hit its $900,000 funding goal in eight hours, and broke Kickstarter records after raising $8.6 million total. Earlier this year, OUYA's creators announced that the console would be widely available at retail stores in June.

Kickstarter backers, meanwhile, began receiving their OUYA consoles in April.

Source : mashable

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Why Businesses Should 'Act Human' on Facebook

No matter how much thought you put into your social media strategy, the real world can always interfere.

Robert Reimann spent more than a week hashing out a plan to boost sales and engagement on the Facebook page for his bike tour business, after being matched with Shane Johnston, a social media marketing consultant from Mashable's Small Business Panel. With Johnston's help, Reimann would launch a contest — along with Facebook ads to promote it — in order to attract more fans and build up an email list of customers, which he would then work to convert into sales.

Then the flood started.

Germany, where Reimann and his business BikeSherpa are based, was hit with severe flooding earlier this month that forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. While Reimann's home in Dresden wasn't damaged, he had to help his sister move all her furniture and evacuate from her house along the Elbe river. Reimann also had to scramble to come up with new bike routes and re-book hotels for customers who had booked bike trips around the city.

Faced with all of that, Reimann and Johnston were forced to put most of their social media plans on hold. However, Johnston pushed Reimann to make one subtle change to his Facebook strategy based on the natural disaster: Try connecting with fans by being more open about the experience. Based on the advice, Reimann shared an image of the flooding on the Facebook page with a note: "Time for a quick change of itinerary." The post received several comments and re-shares — more than most others he had shared in recent months.

"I think that the honesty part is really important," Reimann says now, reflecting on his decision to post about what he was going through during the flood. "I wanted to make clear that there is a flood going on here, and we are in a special situation. You're building trust by being honest."

When we first profiled Reimann's business a month ago, it had roughly 1,000 Facebook fans, very low engagement (with a PTAT of 4) and no established email list of customers. Given the extenuating circumstances of the flood, he and Johnston weren't really able to move the dial too much on these metrics, but they did lay some groundwork for what's to come.

Reimann started to craft a bike tour recommendation guide, which will be offered free as an incentive to anyone who signs up for the contest. Once that's done, they will throw up a landing page for the contest — Johnston has already created it, as you can see below — and run Facebook ads to advertise that landing page in order to attract potential customers and their email addresses. Importantly, the landing page is hosted on Facebook rather than offsite.

"It is best to keep people inside Facebook within your tabs whenever possible," Johnston says. "Whenever you send people to a link outside Facebook, many people will not click there, and therefore you lose conversions to leads."

As of right now, the plan is to start putting up ads for the landing page in the next week or so — after Reimann is done dealing with the aftermath of the flood — and continue advertising it for 2-3 weeks. The hope, Johnston says, is to bring in about 500 new leads, which drive "a couple" sales for the business — each bike tour can cost as much as several thousand dollars. Of course, all of that assumes Mother Nature doesn't get in the way again.

For now, Reimann says the most valuable thing he's gained from the program is the push from Johnston be be more personal on his Facebook. "Being more personal, being not afraid or not shy about being personal, that's what people want," he says. "Sometimes it really helps to have someone else whose opinion you respect tell you that."

Source : mashable

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3 Ways Paid Social Ads Can Explode Your Content

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Content marketing –- creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience –- has become a popular marketing tactic over the past few years. But although most companies understand how to promote their content via their “owned” channels, such as their Facebook Page, their Twitter account or LinkedIn Company Page, many are missing out on the opportunity to get their content in front of a larger audience through paid social promotions.

For example, let’s say you’ve spent time and money developing a great new how-to video or article –- how do you make sure people see it? Promoting it via Facebook Promoted Posts will put it front and center for your fans. Or, what if you’ve received a positive write-up in your local paper? You can make sure your target customers see it by making a small Twitter ad buy targeted at local followers of that paper.

Positive product reviews, media coverage, blog posts and educational content like white papers and presentations can all have tremendous value for your business. Here are three paid social ad tools that can dramatically expand visibility for this content.

1. Facebook Promoted Posts

With Facebook Promoted Posts, businesses pay to have their regular posts appear higher (and more often) in the news feed, so there's a better chance their audience will see them.

“Most small business owners don't realize the impact of just spending a little bit of money to promote posts,” said Anthony Kirlew, Chief Strategist at AKA Internet Marketing. “With all of the noise in the Facebook newsfeeds as well as the EdgeRank factors, the message of most small business Facebook pages is unseen. For a very small amount of money, companies can get the lift that leads to the exposure they are seeking on Facebook.”

To promote a post on your Page, simply create the post and click “Promote” at the bottom of the post. You’ll be prompted to select your audience – either people who like your page, or people who like your page and their friends –- and to set a budget based on how many people you want to reach. Compelling graphics and headlines are important for driving maximum engagement with Promoted Posts, so even if you’re promoting someone else’s content (such as a story about your company in the local paper), consider including your own graphic and headline to make it pop.

Galen Ward, co-founder and CEO of real estate search engine Estately, used Facebook Promoted Posts to seed viral sharing of its fun blog post, "37 Things You Should Know Before Moving to Seattle.” Ward’s strategy was to go narrow with the post promotion, crafting a post that would appeal to Seattle sports fans, and then promoting it to people who have the Seahawks as one of the interests on Facebook.

According to Ward, the company spent just under $100 and got 8,500 Likes and tens of thousands of visitors to the web site.

“We paid under $3 CPM and got around a five percent click-through rate — so for under $100 we got our post in front of over 30,000 people,” said Ward. “Without Facebook, it would have travelled through our limited networks, but with Facebook ads we got it in front of virtually every person who might be interested in it. And because the content was engaging and in front of the right people, it sparked a ton of viral sharing.”

Ward says they are now experimenting with spending $10-20 to promote each of their blog posts and will up the spend for posts that perform well.

2. Twitter Promoted Tweets

Twitter recently launched a self-service capability for Promoted Tweets, which are regular tweets that you pay to promote to more people. Twitter allows you to target people by geography, interest or gender, and you only pay only when people click, retweet, favorite or reply to your tweet.

Twitter’s pricing system is based on bidding: you set the maximum amount you’re willing to spend per follow or click, and Twitter will give you suggestions for what you should bid to optimize your campaign. Twitter tools allow you to see how each of your tweets is performing; after a few days of running promoted tweets, check back in to gauge how the campaign is working and whether you need to adjust your bid.

Online music publication Prefix Magazine used Promoted Tweets to increase brand awareness and drive more high-quality readers to their site, prefixmag.com. The site saw an immediate 49% jump in visitor traffic from Twitter compared to the week before the Twitter ad campaign. “When a tweet is resonating, I want to keep it resonating — to have that tweet snowball — and Twitter advertising makes that happen,” said Prefix Magazine’s Publisher Dave Park.

Daniel Rothamel, founder of artist management company Two Plus Media offered free downloads of “The Wretched”, a mixtape by his client NomiS, via Promoted Tweets. The $50 campaign, which targeted users in the U.S. interested in Christian and Gospel music, resulted in 7,900 impressions and 105 engagements on the tweet.

"One of my biggest challenges with promoting new artists is cutting through the clutter to find the people who are already interested in the music my artists create,” said Rothamel. “Promoted Tweets helps me target these people more effectively, giving me a greater chance at successfully turning them into fans."

3. LinkedIn Ads

To get your content in front of a business audience, consider LinkedIn Ads, which run on prominent pages on the LinkedIn.com website. Ads consist of a headline, a description (up to 75 characters of text), your name or company name, a small image and a URL. You can specify which LinkedIn members view your ads by selecting targeting criteria such as job title, job function, industry, geography, age, gender, company name, company size or even by a particular LinkedIn Group (such as “Corporate Real Estate”). Like with Twitter, you set a maximum budget and only pay for the clicks or impressions that you receive.

According to LinkedIn, the best-performing ads are relevant to the target audience and written with clear, compelling words. LinkedIn suggests that you highlight special offers, unique benefits, white papers, free trials or demos to get people’s attention, and include strong call-to-action phrases like Try, Download, Sign up or Request a Quote.

Internet marketing agency Cardinal Web Solutions used a LinkedIn ad featuring a company culture presentation to help generate interest in their job openings. According to founder and CEO Alex Membrillo, “The content included in the presentation has been very effective for attracting qualified candidates, and overall interest in our company has increased significantly.”

Marketing software company HubSpot is offering white papers and free educational resources via LinkedIn Ads to attract marketing professionals. The company says it first experimented with ad campaigns on social networks other than LinkedIn, but the campaigns did not yield satisfactory results.

"There's a lot of distraction on other social networks," said Dan Slagen, the company's head of paid marketing. "People are there for reasons besides improving their businesses, or networking with other professionals. We need to connect with B2B companies that are focused on lead generation, which means LinkedIn is the place for us.

According to Slagen, HubSpot’s LinkedIn Ads generate a click-through rate that is 60 percent higher than its average across other social networks, with much higher quality leads.

"There's no clutter on LinkedIn - members are there to do business," he added.

Getting Started

Ready to get started but still not sure which channel makes the most sense for you?

HipLogiq CTO and cofounder Adam Root recommends that small businesses consider all three networks, but use them for different purposes.

“My strategy is to use Twitter to gain new users, Facebook to build a community and LinkedIn to generate leads for the sales team,” says Root. “My logic in choosing this strategy is that Twitter is a good medium for targeting moments and encouraging action, Facebook is a great medium for building long-term relationships and LinkedIn is a business network with high-profile agencies in its user base that I’d want as customers.”

Source :mashable

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The little niceties of Apple's iOS interface

Out of last week's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco comes word of a new, clever, and perhaps useful feature in iOS 7: dynamic icons.

At The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Steven Sande writes that developers have noted that the forthcoming icon for the Clock app will have a moving second hand and show the correct time down to the second. The current, static icon shows the time as 10:15 exactly. There's a screen shot of the new iOS 7 app, check it out.

Sande suggests that this API will be available to all developers and there's the notion that icons could become dynamic. This little touch is fantastic and I can see all kinds of uses for it, such as showing changes in content or news or weather. This could be used for many things beyond the longstanding badge concept for notification. So, for example, a time-delayed, multiplayer game could show whether you're winning or losing. This doesn't obviate the usefulness of badges, rather it could be complementary to them, depending on how the animation is accomplished.

There was a wider discussion on iOS 7 icons at several sites this past week, observing that some of the icon images on Apple's site differ from the ones in the beta version released to developers at WWDC last week. So, that could be another example of this dynamic quality, or just ordinary design differences.

Some call this "eye candy," as they have called the Mac or iOS interface. This has been the label hung on Apple products for decades, first by PC users about the Mac interface and now by other mobile device vendors about iOS. Somehow, there's the lingering feeling that something fun can't be really powerful or truly useful.

Instead, Apple has long known that these small niceties around details in the interface can have a strong impact on the user, creating a sense of fun and enjoyment. And loyalty.

Source : zdnet

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6 Spotify Apps You'll Use Every Day

With more than 15 million songs on Spotify, deciding what to listen to can be overwhelming. This list highlights the best Spotify apps for discovering new music, reading album reviews and exploring the social buzz of emerging bands.

What's your favorite app on Spotify right now? Let us know in the comments section below.

1. Fuse

Best for: Creative playlists

The Fuse Spotify app is a perfect resource for curated playlists. With a gorgeous, image-heavy layout, the app is fun to use and very visually appealing. Fuse's "What We're Listening To" playlist features over 200 tracks and is updated by staff members daily. You probably won't find new songs with this app, but you will enjoy the creative approach Fuse takes when compiling its playlists, such as "This Niles Rodgers Playlist is Like the History of Disco and Dance," "The Daft Punk Samples Playlist" and "Single Ladies: The Best One-Named Female Singers."

2. Blue Note

Best for: Perusing classic jazz songs

Blue Note is an essential Spotify app for jazz enthusiasts. The app features more than 70 years of music. Its interactive timeline and filters let you customize your browsing selection. "View" or "Read More" links bring you to a landing page with historical context and profiles of contributing artists. "Add as Playlist" and "Share" buttons make the interactive experience social, too.

3. TuneWiki

Best for: Looking up lyrics

Say goodbye to those "[song name] +lyrics" Google searches. The TuneWiki Spotify app generates lyrics for whatever track you're listening to, and then as the music plays, it automatically bolds the current line. The app struggles with more experimental music like Dillon Francis and XXYYXX; since the words are so muddled, it simply says:

[Instrumental]

(Instrumental)

{Instrumental}

And I have to admit, I appreciated the creativity in conveying the different sets of instrumentals.

4. Emerge

Best for: Tracking social buzz of emerging artists

The Emerge Spotify app uses data visualization to track new artists you care about. While most apps on the Internet try to cater to Millennials' notoriously short attention spans, Emerge takes a more long-term approach: It tracks social buzz and Spotify activity of 10 upcoming artists over a six-week period.

5. Pitchfork

Best for: Alternative music discovery

Pitchfork's publication is exceptional for finding new music, so it's no surprise that its Spotify app is equally helpful. You can browse album reviews in three ways: an all-inclusive stream, the best new albums, or Pitchfork-made playlists. Each album listed comes with a numerical rating, an "Add as Playlist" option, and a "Share Album" option, as well as a full-length, Pitchfork-style album review.

6. Rolling Stone Recommends

Best for: Reading reviews of new releases

The Rolling Stone Spotify app works hard in all the right places. The interface is hassle-free and the album and song reviews are hosted directly on Spotify. A large selection of the playlists are curated by top artists, from David Guetta to Tom Petty.

Source : mashable

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Apple VP Rushed iBooks Deal While Steve Jobs Was Alive

Apple senior Vice President Eddy Cue told a Manhattan courtroom Thursday that he rushed through the process of making deals with publishers — so that Steve Jobs could unveil the iBooks store on stage while the Apple founder was still alive.

Cue is at the center of an antitrust trial where Apple stands accused of fixing prices of e-books at an artificially high level. Department of Justice prosecutors have described Cue as "the chief ringleader" of a price-fixing effort, a charge he vehemently denied. The five major publishers involved in the lawsuit have all made out-of-court settlements with the DOJ.

But Cue argues he wasn't aware of any price-fixing deals the publishers may have been working on. He was focused on making a deal fast on behalf of his then boss, Steve Jobs.

It was late 2009, and Jobs was "at the end of his life," Cue said. Jobs, battling prostate cancer, would last another year before stepping down from running the company in January 2011; he died in October 2011. Each keynote presentation before then, including the unveiling of the iPad in January 2010, could well have been his last.

"I wanted to get it done in time for [the iPad launch], because that was important for him," Cue told the federal court. He had a couple of months to make the deals, and added that the pressure he felt was "tremendous."

Cue had something to prove: it was he who first insisted to Jobs that the iPad had the potential to be "the best e-reader the market has ever seen," he said. Jobs initially argued against it — but once he relented, he asked Cue to get the iBooks store ready for the January unveiling.

The deal Cue made allowed publishers to set their own prices (as opposed to Amazon, which bought books wholesale and set its own prices.) The government points to a clause in the deal that allowed Apple to lower the price of any given ebook if it was cheaper elsewhere.

This, the DOJ contends, gave the publishers cover to raise the prices of new and bestselling ebooks — and forced Amazon, which had long sold cheaper ebooks, to follow suit. The government has offered several emails from Jobs into the evidence, as has Apple. The case continues next week.

Source : mashable

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