CRM Update – Jun 07 : 5:31 pm

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army soldier accused of providing classified information to WikiLeaks, has so far been left in the dark about what harm his alleged actions have caused the United States. However, a recent ruling has changed that.
The judge presiding over Manning’s trial demanded the U.S. government hand over previously classified information detailing the cost of damages it believes were done by Manning’s actions, according to The Guardian.
The documents, which will remain out of the public’s hands, were given to Manning’s defense earlier this week…

If there’s anything I want to be reminded of at the pool, it’s the time of the month that women worldwide bitterly refer to as “Shark Week.” (Or maybe that’s just my friends.) So it caught Amanda’s attention when she noticed this light-colored pool toy with gentle curves on the outside. It would be nice to float on in the pool while lounging, waiting for your sunscreen to dry so you don’t catch fire. Oh, and it looks like a giant feminine hygiene product.

Amanda spotted this item in a Sam’s Club in upstate New York, where sample pool products dangle above customers’ heads…

An Arby’s customer in Colorado has sued the restaurant chain over a 2010 incident in which he claims his genitals were burnt when the urinal he was using “caused a jet of hot steam to shoot forth.”

Making matters worse, claims the plaintiff, when he and his wife complained to restaurant employees about the unexpected steam bath, they were allegedly told that this is a recurring problem that “happens when the sink in the kitchen is running.”

The suit, which does not detail the extent of the man’s injuries, seeks unspecified damages and alleges negligence, premises liability and loss of consortium…

A 15-year-old girl in Florida is making headlines because she says she was not allowed to wear her Tinker Bell costume inside of a Disney theme park, citing company policy against teens and adults dressed as characters.

The girl says she spent hours doing her hair, makeup and costume so that she and her boyfriend, dressed as Peter Pan, could celebrate his birthday at Disney.

The pair had no problem getting into Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but were stopped when trying to enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom, because her outfit too closely resembled those worn by the various Tinker Bells who wander the parks posing for photos with visitors…

My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty and cheap breakfasts with names like Moons Over My Hammy! Denny’s is all about celebrating America with its new “50 State Challenge,” wherein the first person to check in on its mobile app at a Denny’s in all 50 states in a year will win free Grand Slams for life. For life. So is it worth it?

The Dallas Observer’s “City of Ate” blog points out that hitting up every single state in a year would involve visiting a different state every week, unless you managed to lump a few of those states together in one week…

mmMule is a social travel network that enabled travelers to deliver desired goods to locals in exchange for a native experience in the area.
More About: features, mashable, travel, World, World at Work

Fandango has released the teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film Django Unchained, with a call to action at the end encouraging movie fans to sign up for alerts about the film.
Django Unchained — which features a strong lineup of stars including Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson — doesn’t hit theaters until Christmas 2012, but for the first time ever, Fandango is prompting moviegoers to get news and updates about the film ahead of time by signing up Fandango’s Fan Alerts…

In the crowd of hungry tired worn-out journalists at the Showstoppers Tech and Gadget showcase event at the Icon LA Ultra Lounge, right next to a Hooters, across the from the Los Angeles Convention Center, Samsung, like everyone else, isn’t showing off anything new. But the particular bobble they have that catches my eye is the Samsung 830 series solid-state drive, released back in october of 2011. It is a sleek little gun-metal black drive thinner than 1/5 of an inch and no weight to it whatsoever…

A company called Tactus Technology, based in Fremont, Calif., specializes in one thing — bringing back physical buttons for touchscreen devices.
The patented technology called the Tactile Layer has been in development since 2007. Buttons appear when needed and disappear from sight when texting or dialing is done. The Tactile Layer can bring tangible buttons to ebooks, tablets and all other touchscreen devices.
The keyboard uses “innovative microfluidic technology” to work its magic — buttons pop up due to fluid pressure within the cover layer…

In a world generating and storing tons of data every day, business owners need to learn how to harness it to get an edge.There’s a behavioral marketing concept that goes something like this: The act of observing behavior actually changes the behavior.It’s an easy concept to set aside, until you start to consider the enormity of the online behavior we are now able to observe–and therefore affect. All aspects of electronic data collection have led to reams and reams (or more aptly, terabytes and terabytes) of data to observe…

With banks taking a more conservative approach to financing, it’s wise to explore these other options.Growing your small business is challenging, whether you’re an ice cream company looking to significantly expand distribution, a software company establishing a new office to double your staff, or a parts manufacturer looking to create a new customized production line. One of the biggest hurdles is getting the capital you need to take the business to the next level. A lack of funding can stunt growth and force you to forgo profitable opportunities…

Looking for a way to see if your eHarmony password was among the 1.5 million compromised on Wednesday? Password management firm LastPass has rolled out a quick and easy way to see if you’re a victim of the dating site’s security breach.
LastPass, the same company that introduced a secure tool to check if your LinkedIn password was among the 6.5 million compromised yesterday, has created a similar platform at LastPass.com/eHarmony.
After typing your eHarmony password into LastPass’s tool, the service computes its SHA-1 hash and sends the result to LastPass…

They’re organized, can multi-task, and have zero time to screw around. In short: Moms are wired to kick ass.In my 20s and most of my 30s I was the employee you wanted on your team. I was highly ambitious, worked insane hours and prioritized nothing above my job. When I learned I was pregnant, I was certain I would return to my job–as VP of global marketing communications at SuccessFactors–after a brief maternity leave. Yet four months later, I was still at home cuddling my precious daughter, knowing there was no way I could go back to the international travel and 70-hour weeks…

You may remember a few months back when Mashable gladly helped a young man ask his girlfriend if she would spend the rest of her life with him. The “Stacy Green, Will You Marry Me?” infographic was a huge hit with readers, earning over 11,000 shares on Mashable Follow.
And we’re happy to share that Stacy Green, who happens to be Mashable’s VP of marketing and communications, said yes.
But before proposing, Stacy’s fiancé Drake Martinet had to crunch the numbers. He calculated the actual probability that the two were soulmates…

City dwellers, we’ve all been there: It’s the after-work rush hour, the heavens have opened up in a torrential downpour and all you want is a taxi, but there’s none to be found.
Good news: A revolutionary digital service called GetTaxi, which has hit it big in Russia, Israel and the U.K., aims to make sure that never happens again. The better news is that it’s finally coming to New York in the next few months.
GetTaxi provides users an easy-to-use interface for digitally ordering a cab via their smartphones or desktop computers…

Use these simple strategies learned from Black Jack to turbo charge your marketing results.Whenever I am in Vegas I always spend a considerable amount of time at the Blackjack tables. Also known as 21, it is a simple card game wherein the players and the dealers try to beat one another’s hands without exceeding the number 21. One thing you need to realize about Vegas, the odds are always in the house’s favor. Sure some people will tell you they can “count cards” and flip the odds in their favor, books will sell you systems to beat the house, but at the end of the day one immutable truth remains: the odds are always in the favor of the house…

Let’s say you’re buying sandals for your cat (go with me, here).
Naturally, you type “cat sandals” into Google and hit “I’m feeling lucky.” Do you end up with feline footwear or a list of Sandals Resorts hotels that cater to kitties?
OK, bad example. But you get the point. Smart Googling requires finesse, a keen eye, some Boolean tricks, and a bit of jena se qua we like to call Google-Fu.
SEE ALSO: How to Find Anything in Your Gmail
Train up your Google-Fu with these 20 tricks that will focus your searches with laser precision…

Every time Facebook changes its privacy settings to allow for more invasion of users’ private information and photos, the company — and especially its founder/figurehead Mark Zuckerberg — talk about how it’s all in the interest of being public and transparent and other things that aren’t true. Meanwhile, Zuck’s own public Facebook page is essentially a non-entity and the man is incredibly private about his personal life. Thus, our former in-laws at Gizmodo have decided it’s time to change the privacy settings on Zuckerberg’s life…

Second in a series. Two days ago, I established that iPhone’s market share is heavily dependent on carrier subsidies. Now let’s take a look how iPhone subsidies affect carriers and the potential impact this could have on Apple.
To Summarize, under iPhone’s current subsidy structure, it is practically impossible for carriers to break-even. Even when factoring higher churn rate of other smartphones and lower cost of retaining iPhone users, Apple’s device still costs carriers too much to be really profitable compared to other smartphones…

If you’re upset with the parking ticket you’ve just received, it’s rarely a good idea to rip it up. It’s certainly a bad idea to rip that ticket up in front of the police officer who just wrote it. Ask the pregnant Chicago woman who says police used a stun gun on her after she tore up her citation.

Police ticketed the woman, who is only a few weeks away from giving birth, for allegedly parking in a handicap spot outside a Walgreens.

The woman claims she had merely pulled into the spot to briefly console her young daughter and was upset when the police took the opportunity to issue the violation…

Today marks the publication of Altimeter Group’s newest enterprise mobility research report, authored by analyst Chris Silva. We began with a hypothesis that, as the age of mobile = email has come to a close, are mobile employees being served with the proper applications to make them be more productive? Our guess was that they [...]

Keeping track of what’s happening across even the smallest network can be a challenge. To put it mildly. Whether it’s your users misbehaving, or genuine hardware and software issues are cropping up, there’s always some problem to consider.
You don’t have to try and tackle this on your own, though. Spiceworks is a powerful free network auditing and inventory tool that will automatically scan your systems and alert you to what’s going on, and it’s suitable for everyone from regular home users through to large business networks…

The healthcare joint venture encompasses many of the people and products that were formerly part of Microsoft’s Health Services Group.

The Facebook Marketing Series is presented by Webtrends, helping brands acquire, engage, nurture and optimize Facebook fans. Get the Social Media Marketing Playbook, a guide for maximizing returns. Download now.
At this point, most people know to market their business on Facebook — there are more than 900 million people on the social platform, constantly “liking,” sharing, commenting and posting. We’ve gone over some best practices for Facebook marketing, discussed hot trends and shared customer service tips, so now you know what you should do…

RIM has stopped making the 16 GB PlayBook tablet, leaving only 32 and 64 GB versions in stock, the company told Engadget.
“RIM will no longer be making the 16 GB model of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The 16 GB PlayBook will continue to be available for distributors and retailers while quantities last. (…) There is more value for our customers in the higher capacity models (32 GB, 64 GB), and as such we have decided to focus our efforts here,” said RIM in a statement.
Engadget thinks this might be due to the lower profit margins on the 16 GB version, but we can think of another reason for the change — a shift away from the consumer market…

The major networks have already lined up to fight Dish Network over AutoHop, its DVR function that allows viewers to skip over commercials entirely, with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox filing separate lawsuits against it. And now a local broadcaster is taking issue with the ad-skipper, and has refused to carry Dish’s signals.

Dish claims Hoak Media Corp., a Dallas-based company which owns 14 small-market television stations in places like Grand Junction, Colo. and Fargo, N.D., broke up with the company because of AutoHop, reports the Los Angeles Times…

Redbox isn’t taking Walt Disney Studios’ 28-day delay policy on its DVDs sitting down, no siree. It’s cutting out the middleman and heading to retail outlets and the Internet, buying up copies of John Carter and stocking its kiosks instead of waiting 28 days to rent the flick.

Disney had said it wouldn’t sell any of its DVDs to rental outlets until 28 days after those movies go on sale, when it used to let everyone have them the same day they went on sale, says the Chicago Tribune…

Based on previous Consumerist stories about Sears, it might surprise you to learn that the refrigerator that Ginger and her husband purchased was brought to their home in one piece, on the correct day, and actually existed. Only they had discovered after placing the order that it was too wide for their kitchen, and they had ordered a new one instead. They were instructed to refuse the delivery, and then they would receive a correctly-sized fridge on a different day, and a refund…

Start-ups can get a huge boost from partnering with larger companies. Bespoke Post and Parking Panda are growing thanks to key partners. Here’s how they did it.One way to help your start-up grow faster is to work with an established company. Partnerships can provide credibility for customers (as well as future investors), and create new sources of revenue.But making a great partnership is no easy feat; big companies often have different cultures and values than small ones, and work on projects of different scales…