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Computers and Electronics

Roku: [Electronics] Roku 2 HD Streaming Media Player $49…

2012 could prove favorable for capital investments and growth in the social sphere.

Expect zero sleep, testy employees, and tech glitches you never could have anticipated. Here’s how GetHired.com made it through.When I first met Suki Shah, who was wearing a red sweater to make himself stand out in a crowd, there was little outward indication of the treadmill he had been on over the last week. He was charismatic—I detected a dash of Jeff Bezos in him—and he had a penchant for enthusiastically championing his own entrepreneurial efforts.Never mind that he had been up until 3 a…

With social media, there’s no excuse for not knowing your customer.

Do you have a social media strategy for your business yet?If you don’t, you could be missing out on game-changing results.According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 78% of marketers saw increased traffic with just six hours a week invested in social media.The businesses that do social media marketing well will see even bigger wins in 2012, as the gap between who “gets it” and who doesn’t grows wider by the minute.The good news? You don’t need to be everything to everyone anymore…

Dennis Michalis takes over as general manager of the product line from Brad Wilson.

High usage doesn’t equal high satisfaction.

Leaving your dog at a kennel can be heartbreaking, and asking a friend to dog-sit can feel intrusive. So what is a traveling dog owner to do?
A new site called Dog Vacay hopes you’ll instead find a local home for your dog while you’re away. On Thursday, it’s launching Airbnb-type listings for dog boarders.
The startup allows anyone who wants to host dogs in his or her home to apply for a listing on the site. Homeowners set their own price, choose their own schedules and can specify what types of dogs they’re willing to host…

The first step is accepting the fact that you can’t be good at everything.

Of the three major devices we connect to our TVs — gaming consoles, DVRs and DVD players — DVRs get by far the most use. While we’re watching less live TV than a few years ago, we now watch a full 19 minutes more per year of programming, just on our own schedules now.
Those statistics and more from a new Nielsen study reveal how TV-watching habits have changed with the growing popularity of DVRs.
“The percent of DVR usage has grown fivefold from a mere 1.6% in 2006 to almost 8% in 2011, and DVRs are adding time to our TV day by allowing us to watch shows airing at the same time…

Yesterday, we shared with you the story of Z, the room he rented in a small city in central California, and the landlord who thought it was totally okay to stay in his bedroom while he was out of town. We didn’t expect to get an update this soon, or for the story to get even stranger. It turns out that while the owner of the house may be mentally ill, according to local police, she has definitely been running a scam for at least the last few months that consists of collecting rent and deposits, then terrorizing renters so they move out…

A major reason more than a third of American children are struggling with obesity is the copious amount of sugar they take in every day, with processed foods providing a significant share. That’s the opinion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that sugars made up 16.3 percent of boys’ calorie intake and 15.5 percent of that of girls. The CDC recommends that kids’ discretionary calorie intake be 15 percent or lower.

Citing CDC figures and recommendations, CBS News reports that all that extra sugar has been found to lead to increased risk of heart problems and high cholesterol in teens…

This new IT sector offers visibility, real-time guidance, and process automation.

Finding the right advisor for your company can make all the difference.Here’s the beauty of a top-notch advisor: They can make a big difference to your leadership team without breaking the bank. They can expand your network, fill gaps in your own knowledge, and just generally provide a sanity check. But to get a good advisor, and to have a good relationship with them, you need a good fit. So what roles might an advisor play, and why might anyone be interested in being an advisor in the first place?First, let’s look at some of the specific ways a good advisor can help your company:Avoid potholes…

2D bar codes are a great marketing strategy, at least in theory.

“Things’ll go your way, if you hold on for one more day.”?Wilson Phillips, “Hold On”

The recent major changes in Google’s privacy policy go into effect today, March 1.
In January, Google announced a new master privacy policy that replaces more than 70 different documents and governs all of Google’s products.
Google promises the new document is easier to understand and follow, and that the essence of the company’s privacy controls isn’t changing.
“We aren’t collecting any new or additional information about users. We won’t be selling your personal data…

Higher expectations demand a cultural shift.

If your long-term customers are leaving–and not coming back–you’re probably making one of these mistakes.Your most profitable customers are almost always long-term customers.Don’t lose them by making any of the following mistakes:1. Change too many players. It’s tempting to assume long-term customers love your brand. More often than not they love your employees.Customers don’t buy from companies. They buy from people—your people.Since relationships are the lifeblood of a small business, don’t rotate salespeople, customer service reps, or key contacts unless you have to…

Jeff is a really generous boss. This past holiday season, he gave out $100 gift cards to various stores as gifts to his staff. He picked them up at one of those gift card malls that you see in grocery and drug stores: in this case, at grocery chain Ralph’s. When his employee went to actually use the card this week, it wouldn’t work. Normal gift card snafu? No. The grocery store blames card-switching thieves.

Curious if you’ve run across this issue previously. For Xmas, I purchased gift cards for members of my staff…

Sometimes Twitter can be an effective customer service tool; more often it’s not. But most of the time, tweets to brands are inane drivel like most of the rest of Twitter. Or they come full circle and are so stupid that they’re almost interesting.

The blog Dumb Tweets @ Brands catalogs the tweets that fall into that last category. It is strangely compelling.

A few examples:

Would such a person carry an epi-pen filled with sweet and sour sauce in case someone slips them a nugget?

Too long…

Social streams are what you put into them?for better or worse.

Look beyond patriotism: Veterans’ technical skills (and the tax breaks that come with hiring them) make vets great small business hires.With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, there are bound to be a lot of veterans looking for a fresh start outside the service. Why not hire some?A recent Society for Human Resources Managament poll of HR pros found that while more than half of organizations surveyed had hired a veteran in the last three years, only 13 percent “reported being ‘very aware’ of effective resources for recruiting veterans…

As enterprises turn to gamification, measurable action, reputation, and incentives are all part of the equation.

Hotel chains open communities to communicate with guests.

We’re deep in it now.
So far we’ve talked about the importance of Gamification and Customer Experience on Social CRM in 2012 and everything we’ve talked about thusfar is devoted to what is happening on the customer side of things when creating those experiences we’ve been talking about. This time we’re keeping customer experiences in the forefront of our minds, but we’re looking at it more internally from a research and insights point of view.
It’s hard to spend any period of time reading about social media, social insights, CRM technology and digital marketing without coming across the phrase “Return on Investment”…

Health class taught you that women were born with all the eggs they’d ever have throughout their lives, but science has cast doubt on that supposition. New research finds that women can make new eggs throughout their reproductive years, thanks to stem cells in ovaries.
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National Geographic reports scientists identified the stem cells in mice ovaries in a study published in 2004, but researchers in Boston’s Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital have finally identified the stem cells in humans…

nFluence Media is a Seattle and London-based tech startup, which has launched their maiden product, an app for the iPhone, dubbed dealBoard.
dealBoard is a free iOS app that collects daily deals from dearly all the daily deal sites and presents you with a personalized selection based on your interests. There aren’t any forms to fill out; no email inbox flooding, just a program that learns your tastes based on preferences and assures that you’ll only see deals relevant to you. Android and Window’s versions are coming soon…

Your creativity may not work in a corporate environment, but could be perfect for starting your own business.In a traditional corporate setting, expressing one’s unique quirks, differences, and opinions is sometimes frowned upon—or even considered a weakness. But as entrepreneurs, these perceived weaknesses are often our greatest strengths.I have always performed well in my traditional corporate jobs. But have you ever experienced the confusing phenomenon of being really good at something that wasn’t your passion? One reason that I could never completely lose myself in most of my Corporate America jobs was the nagging feeling—and painful reality—that my creativity sometimes ended up eventually being a double-edged sword…