Top 3 Stories in Social Media and Tech This Morning

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

elcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

Tech Companies’ Anti-Poaching Agreements Come to an End

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with Adobeadobe AIR, GoogleGoogle, Intel, Intuit, Apple and Pixar that prevents these six leading technology companies from entering into anticompetitive, “no-poach” agreements for each other’s employees.

The settlement marks the end of an investigation by the DoJ to determine whether those agreements violated U.S. antitrust laws which, indeed, they did. All six are now barred from entering into these types of agreements, especially ones that ban “cold calling.”

Digg Traffic Declines Sharply Following Release of “New Digg”

New data from Hitwise reveals that visitor traffic to Digg.com has declined 24% in the U.S. and 34% in the U.K. over the past 11 weeks, dropping off most sharply after the social news network released a new version of its site to users in late August.

Users have staged protests against the new version of the site since its public launch. Digg’sDigg team has been responsive to many of users’ complaints thus far, rolling out changes to its algorithms to give users — rather than publishers — more power over front-page content, for instance; however, they have apparently not done enough to prevent a significant percentage from spending their InternetInternet minutes elsewhere.

Sony Ericsson Drops Symbian OS from Smartphone Plans

Despite Nokia’s best efforts to entice developers, the SymbianSymbian S60 mobile operating system continues to lose support from users and vendors. On Friday, Sony Ericsson spokesman Aldo Liguori revealed that the company has no further plans to develop smartphones based on the OS.

Like competitors Motorola and Samsung, Sony has shifted much of its focus to developing phones based on Google’s AndroidAndroid platform instead.

Further News

Apple has released iTunes 10.0.1, which, in addition to patching the usual bout of bugs, gives increased visibility to the company’s new music-focused social network, PingPing [via TiPB]. FacebookFacebook has officially rolled out a new feature for helping you discover Facebook Pages, dubbed “Page Browser.”Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Oprah on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his $100 million donation to public education in Newark schools on Friday.Just in time for the second season of the hit TV show Glee, Smule has upgraded its popular iOS app, Glee Karaoke [iTunes link].Nine months after Amazon announced the launch of an app store for its Kindle e-reader, the first paid app, Scrabblescrabble, has made its way into the store.Series supported by HTC EVO 4G

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

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Online Retailers to Offer Facebook Credits as Shopping Incentives

You can already buy Facebook Credits (the social network’s virtual currency) as gift cards at brick-and-mortar stores. Soon, you will also be able to accrue Facebook Credits by shopping online, as it’s now possible for online retailers to offer the credits as shopping incentives.

Ifeelgoods, an e-commerce promotions provider for online retailers, has integrated Facebook Credits into the online shopping experience, meaning that its clients can use the credits to incentivize customer purchases and other shopping-related behaviors.

Essentially, what this means is that online retailers can now lure you in with the promise of Facebook Credits if you buy that pair of jeans you saved in your online shopping cart. Ifeelgoods will also allow retailers to offer smaller Facebook Credits incentives for e-mail newsletter sign-ups and social behaviors such as voting or FacebookFacebook shares.

As Facebook continues to grow in size and its currency becomes more versatile, Facebook Credits may prove to be the perfect complement to the online shopping experience. Though virtual in nature, the credits are still more tangible than points, and for some customers, may prove to be more desirable than coupons or other rewards.

How would you prefer to be incentivized for your online purchases? Would Facebook Credits sweeten the deal? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of pmsyyz, FlickrFlickr

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How Your License Plate Could Be Your New Username [INVITES]

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Bump
Quick Pitch: Bump allows users to connect online and offline via unique identifiers, including license plates, mobile phones and online profiles.
Genius Idea: Ever wanted to tell the driver in front of you that their lights are off? Or maybe you’ve wanted to be the good Samaritan and warn someone that his meter has expired. Perhaps you just find the driver in the adjacent vehicle visually stimulating and are hoping they think the same about you.
These street scenarios face us drivers on a daily basis, but there’s never been an easy or safe way to message another driver or car owner. Enter Bump, a recently launched, private-beta startup (we’ve got invites) that has created a way to message other drivers by using the one unique identifier all drivers have in common: our license plates.
 ump users can message other drivers through voice-automated commands, photo snapshots of license plates and SMS. Bump also includes e-mail support, which you can use by directing your message to State.Plate@bump.com, where state is the two-digit state name abbreviation and plate is the individual’s license plate number.
Bump stores all messages sent to a particular license plate in the system until the plate in question is claimed by the plate owner. If you claim your plate, you can then start to receive messages as voice messages, e-mails or text messages. Of course, this also means that those messages you attempt to send to the hottie in the Audi TT won’t get delivered unless he or she has also claimed their plate on Bump — a clear limitation of the service at launch.
Bump members can also connect their TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, and eventually Match.com profiles, e-mail accounts and cell phone numbers with their license plate to further complete the loop between the physical world and the digital world.

Eventually Bump will enter AAA’s realm and offer premium services to drives through a member program. Upgrades will include discount offers, special privileges and roadside assistance. The company is also working with rental car companies, sports leagues and fast-food outlets on marketing initiatives to target special offers to members on the road by tapping into existing video cameras. In this capacity, Bump aims to bring Groupon-like discounts to the real world through license plates, which may be a bit too ambitious for privacy-conscious drivers.
The service’s immediate and long-term success will rely on drivers claiming their plates. The challenge, however, is that even without offers directed at individual license plates, Bump’s technology will likely be a bit too intrusive for those who would prefer not to incorporate their license plate as part of their virtual and physical identities.
The license plate may seem like an obvious public identifier, but to those with higher profiles, their license plate number is not exactly information they want to be part of the public domain. For others, their license plate will be a welcome natural identifier to help bridge the gap between their online persona and offline life.
Right now Bump is available as a website and mobile web app, but the company has plans to release an app for iPhoneiPhone, AndroidAndroid and BlackBerryBlackBerry Rocks! in the near future. Bump is still in private beta, but 250 MashableMashable readers can start using the service today. Simply enter the invite code “mashable” during the registration process.
Bump has raised $1 million in Series A funding and recently appeared at DEMO in Silicon Valley. The startup is in the process of raising a Series B round that will likely reach $8 million. The startup also recently acquired Platester, a license plate messaging platform, for an undisclosed sum.

Image courtesy of richardmasoner, FlickrFlickr
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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What's #NewTwitter?

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SCVNGR Releases Facebook Places Application for Businesses

Today SCVNGR, a relative newcomer in the mobile location-based game space, is releasing a Facebook Places application that businesses can use to highlight their SCVNGR rewards and challenges on their Place Page.

The application is the first of its kind and positions SCVNGR as the only third-party — as well as the only location-sharing service, period — to release something so tightly integrated with the Facebook Places experience.

The app is a Place Page add-on for businesses using SCVNGR. Once installed, it will sit prominently in the left-hand menu section of the Place Page. Visitors can then click it and tab through three sections: Rewards, Challenges and How to Play. For businesses using SCVNGR, the application is a no-brainer to install — literally just a click of a button — that promises reach to millions.

The install also guarantees greater harmony between Facebook Places and SCVNGR. SCVNGR has mapped all user activity — checkins, challenges, rewards and photos — back to the Facebook Place Page, rather than to the SCVNGR Place Page.

“Because SCVNGR has all this premium activity (challenges, not just checkins), our location-based activity items get surfaced far more often in Facebook’s activity algorithms, meaning that we get more placement, comments and likes,” says CEO Seth Priebatsch.

When coupled with SCVNGR’s previous Facebook Places integration features and do-it-yourself rewards system, the application completes the loop and turns the Place Page into something much more than a repository of checkins.

“Since traditional Facebook Pages are already getting more hits than most companies’ own websites, I’m pretty sure that Facebook Place Pages will be equally (if not more) important. Local businesses tend to have pretty weak websites and with all the inbound traffic Place Pages will get, I’m predicting that Facebook Place Pages will become the canonical online representation of most local businesses. And SCVNGR’s Facebook Place Page widget really improves those pages,” explains Priebatsch.

Google-backed SCVNGR, while still young — just like its 21-year-old CEO — has the potential to become a huge mobile hit. We’ve been closely tracking the company since its consumer launch (SCVNGR operated in stealth mode going after enterprise customers for more than a year) and have been impressed by the Boston-based company’s agility, its brand partnerships and its ability to stand out in a very crowded market where Foursquare rules as mayor.

But SCVNGR is picking up serious steam. Recently, the startup garnered 100,000 mobile downloads in just 48 hours, which is no small feat. As such, the company’s profile is starting to rise in both tech and mainstream media circles. On Sunday, SCVNGR and its CEO were profiled extensively in a piece that made the front page of the Sunday New York Times Business section.

Perhaps when it comes to location, it still is anybody’s game.

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LIVE: Watch the UN Digital Media Lounge [VIDEO]

MashableMashable is proud to be working with the United Nations Foundation and 92nd Street Y to host the first ever UN Week Digital Media Lounge this week. Today’s speakers include recording artist Lupe Fiasco, Helene Gayle, president & CEO of CARE USA, and leaders in social good. We’ve also added 100 slots for the week to allow more media and bloggers to attend.

The conversation about the world’s biggest challenges no longer belongs to a small set of voices — it is a global conversation with an increasingly online pulse. As the world’s leaders convene in New York, the UN Week Digital Media Lounge offers a dedicated venue that is completely wired and accessible to today’s top online voices and up-and-coming bloggers. The Lounge brings the conversations from this historic UN Summit out of the halls of the UN and into the 92nd Street Y, where digital media will deliver it to the world.

A comprehensive agenda will give bloggers the chance to interact with thought leaders on the most important global issues. Confirmed briefings include experts such as Samuel Kargbo, Department of Health, Sierra Leone; Martha Kwataine, executive director, Malawi Health Equity Network; and Steve Cockburn of EndWater Poverty. We will also announce the participation of high-level government officials, UN Goodwill Ambassadors and celebrity advocates shortly. This is truly a unique program bringing the best of UN week to the leading voices in the digital world.

Wednesday, September 22

9 a.m. – Lounge Opens

9:30-10:00 a.m. – Oxfam’s “breakfast with the world”
Live via SkypeSkype, Oxfam brings us experts from around the globe to discuss the reality of issues on the ground. Get answers for your community from people who live and know the situation firsthand.

10:30-11:00 a.m. – The Media Map Project: Media’s Impact on Development
While there is general agreement about the importance of free and independent media in
developing countries, the media is an often overlooked and under-invested sector with great potential to scale up improvements across all development goals. Internews, The World Bank and The Brookings Institute are collaborating to bridge the gap in current research by analyzing empirical correlations in the data on media and development. Funded by the Gates Foundation, The Media Map Project aims to answer the questions: What does the evidence say about media’s role in development? And what are the most effective ways to strengthen media?

12:00-12:30 p.m. – Philanthropy goes viral: what girls can teach women
Moderated by the CEO of Vivanista – the go-to site for women bridging social and impact discuss how girls worldwide are embracing social media to drive social change.

Helene Gayle, president & CEO, CARE USAKimberly Perry, director, Girl UpLayne Gray, CEO of Vivanista

1:00-2:00 p.m. – Keynote Session: Saving 16 million lives – the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health
To set the context for the UN’s groundbreaking new strategy – to be launched by the Secretary General directly following this briefing – a panel of leaders take on the big issues and challenges faced by women and children worldwide.

Tamara Krenin, executive direction, Women & Population, UN FoundationSue Mbaya, director of Advocacy & Justice for Children in Africa, World VisionDr. Abhay Bang, co-founder and director of SEARCHDr. Luc DeBernis, senior maternal health adviser, UNFPAPatricia Mechael, director of Strategic Application of Mobile Technology for Public Health & Development, Earth Institute, Columbia UniversityDr. Dorothy Shaw, MBChB, FRCSC clinical professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology,University of British Columbia, PMNCH spokesperson in Canada

2:30-4:00 p.m. – LIVE BROADCAST: Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon Special Event “Every Woman, Every Child.”
Watch the UN Secretary General’s special launch live on the 92Y’s state of the art big screen.

4:30-5:00 p.m. – Live in the lounge: music, media, & activism
Closing out the day, a group of world-famous musicians and social activists team up to discuss the power of music, social media, and some-good-old-fashion adventure to change lives!

Lupe Fiasco, artist, musician, and global do-gooderSimon Isaacs, VP Sustainability Marketing, ignitionAzita Ardakani, founder and chief idea officer, Lovesocial

6:00 p.m. – Lounge Closes

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Make Internet Explorer Render Like Chrome with Chrome Frame

Developers, your IE6-related woes are over. Google’s taking the “beta” sticker off a handy line of code that will make older versions of Internet Explorer use Chrome’s Webkit-based rendering engine rather than its own default rendering engine.

This time last year, we told you that GoogleGoogle was working on improving the woeful Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer experience via Chrome Frame, an end-user plugin that brought some of Chrome’sChrome open-web tech and JavaScript engine into Internet Explorer.

For today’s InternetInternet apps history lesson, we highlight the fact that Chrome Frame was created especially for Google WaveGoogle Wave, many aspects of which which wouldn’t render in Internet Explorer otherwise. As you can imagine, this revelation didn’t please Microsoft too much.

At the time, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that running Chrome Frame represented a security risk that “doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.” However, last year’s developer preview of this plugin has become a stable product after months of bug fixes and security patches.

Here’s a brief demo video showing what Chrome Frame could do for the typical IE browsing experience:

The Chrome Frame plugin can be used for Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. Once the user downloads the plugin, the browser detects the single meta tag added to the site on the developer’s end, and Chrome Frame switches to the Webkit rendering engine.

Another point of note is that Chrome Frame existed long before IE9, which is purportedly more web-standards compliant, more HTML5-ready, and much faster than previous versions of the web’s most infamous browser. Whether IE9 needs or would operate better with Chrome’s Webkit rendering engine is a highly technical and likely emotionally weighted debate we’ll leave to our good friends at Microsoft and Google.

However, what we do know for a fact is that not every IE user is working with the latest version of the browser, and many developers and designers working in the real world have to optimize for (or at least take into consideration) much older, slower versions of Internet Explorer. For these working stiffs, Chrome Frame could be a lifesaver. The onus to install the plugin still lies with end users, but requiring a plugin install is one workaround for the otherwise tedious task of reworking your site for IE6 or — worse yet — leaving your IE6-using customers out in the cold.

What do you think of Chrome Frame? Have you been using it over the past year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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How to Set, Change & Transfer Facebook Usernames

Love it or hate it, Facebook is currently the biggest and popular site on the web… except for Google. It’s ranked #2 by Alexa and it has over 1.5 billion inbound links. Because it’s such a powerful site, having a well-branded, SEO-optimized vanity username or Fan page URL on Facebook can be a big boost your business and online reputation.

Usernames must be 5 characters long and may be no longer than 50 characters.Usernames can only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and periods (.)Your account must be e-mail and SMS (text message) verified before you are allowed to set or change usernames.Facebook says you cannot register usernames and try to resell them for money, or they will disable the username (or your account) if they find out.

When you’re logged into your account, type the following URL into the browser bar:

http://www.facebook.com/username

Then follow the on-screen directions. They tend to show a lot of suggested usernames with periods in them, and you may have to click the “more” button to type in the one you really want. Check the availability, double-check your spelling (don’t type in “JohnSnith” instead of “JohnSmith“>), and then confirm the name to lock it in for good.

1. Click on the “Account” dropdown menu at the far upper right of your screen. Then select “Account Settings” from the drop-down menu:

2.) Click on the button to change your username:

You are only allowed to change your username once. If you have changed your name once already and want to do it again, you’ll have to register and SMS-verify a new Facebook account. (Maybe buy one of this disposable, prepaid cellular phones for $29.99?)

Yes. It is possible to trade and exchange Facebook usernames. From the tests that I personally conducted (on 2/19/10)… it seems that the second you change your Facebook username to something else, your old username immediately becomes “up for grabs.” If someone else registered as “JohnSmith” and you can talk them into changing to another name.. the moment they change and confirm it, you can grab “JohnSmith” for yourself.

Here is a video I found on YouTube that demonstrates how to transfer / trade Facebook usernames:
(warning! cheesy music)

Facebook Usernames URLs are best for individual people. Facebook Fan Page vanity URLs are better for collective interests like: companies, organization, bands and products. Once your fan page has 25 or more members, you are eligible to set a vanity URL for it. Here’s how:

1. Type “http://www.facebook.com/username” into your browser’s address bar:

2.) Click the blue link that says “Set a username for your pages”:

Yes. As long as your fan page has more than 25 members, you can do this. First change your username to something else. Then immediately go set your the fan page name to the one you want, as your previous username will now be available.

No. According to this thread, you cannot currently change the name of a Facebook Fan page. If your company is called “Extreme Print Design” and you have a Fan page for it, and you legally change your company name to “Extreme Web Design” – you still cannot change the name of your fan page. You have to make a new fan page and start over.

No. Once the fan page URL has been set, there is no way to change it. Not that I know of.

Disclaimer: Facebook has complex, not-user-friendly, constantly evolving interface! The information in this post was true at the time of writing, but i is very likely to change in the coming months or years.

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Tagged as: changing Facebook usernames, changing Facebook vanity URLs, exchanging Facebook URLs, facebook, Facebook SMS verification, Facebook user name, Facebook username squatitng, facebook vanity URLs, trading Facebook usernames

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How to Categorize your Friends on Facebook

Blast

At first it will be tedious and mundane to add people to lists you have made friends with on Facebook; however, it will be worth your wild going forward with all that you do on Facebook. You can create lists such as; “people I work with”, “online friends” or “friends and family”. These lists can become a great networking tool and help you target the exact people you want to share various content, events, or to even have a peek at what their up to without having to sort through your uncategorized newsfeed.

Here’s how you can create your Facebook Lists Today:

1. Once logged into Facebook you will want to go to the top left where it shows the shadow of a person (where it shows people who want to be friends with you) and click on it. A drop down will appear and you will want to click on the link “Find Your Friends”.

2. After clicking on “Find Your Friends” a new page will appear with a button close to the right-hand side that reads, “Create a list”.

3. Click the button “Create a List” and a popup of all of your friends and pages that you have liked will appear. At the top you can name your list and then click on the faces of your friends that you would like to add to the list – you are able to add the same people to a variety of lists if you choose. – When you have added the people to fit the list, click on the button “create list”.

4. Now that your Facebook lists have been created go to the left column on your newsfeed and click on “friends” to see the list of your lists. When you click on the name of your chosen list – the people you added to the list will be seen in your newsfeed. P.S. You can create Facebook Lists for your pages that you own or are admin to as well.

Facebook Lists can serve a great purpose when you want to see what is happening with your friends and family. It’s an easy way to target events, and will save you tons of time from clicking friends one by one. Make your Facebook lists today and take control over who you want to see in your newsfeed, when you want to.

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