We have been waiting five years for the next Strokes album, and we still have about two weeks to go until it drops. Until then, sate yourself with our YouTube Video of the Day, the band’s new vid for the single “Under Cover of Darkness.”
The song is the first track from the band’s upcoming album, Angles, which drops March 22 from RCA records in the U.S. and March 21 from Rough Trade Records in the UK. The band offered it free to Internet denizens at the beginning of last month, but now images have been added to the beat.
Take a look and let us know what you think of the first visual representation of the Strokes’s new disc.
We have been waiting five years for the next Strokes album, and we still have about two weeks to go until it drops. Until then, sate yourself with our YouTube Video of the Day, the band’s new vid for the single “Under Cover of Darkness.”
The song is the first track from the band’s upcoming album, Angles, which drops March 22 from RCA records in the U.S. and March 21 from Rough Trade Records in the UK. The band offered it free to Internet denizens at the beginning of last month, but now images have been added to the beat.
Take a look and let us know what you think of the first visual representation of the Strokes’s new disc.
Greetings from rainy San Francisco, where Apple’s long-anticipated launch of the iPad 2 is about to get underway at the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater. We’ll be bringing you the important details as they come in — no need to scroll down pages of breathless liveblogging. If you’re just interested in the hardware, go here. And check out our gallery of the event at the bottom to see all the photos you need in one place.
Security is high for the event, which is surrounded by police and guarded at multiple checkpoints. Can the product live up to the hype? We’ll find out in less than an hour. Check back for updates.
Ladies and gentlemen: Steve Jobs is in the house. He has “something great to announce today,” he says, but as ever, begins with a recap of how well other Apple products have done. This, folks, is how you make a reality bubble. “We’ve been working on this product for a while, and I didn’t want to miss today.”
To pump the buying temperature some more, Jobs shows a video explaining how 2010 was the “year of the iPad.”
It’s official: the new device is called the iPad 2. The design hasn’t just been tweaked, Jobs says. It’s all new from the bottom up.
Firstly, there’s a new processor, Apple’s custom A5 dual-core system-on-a-chip. That will be two times faster than the original iPad and its graphics will be “up to nine times faster” than that of the iPad 1.
Secondly, iPad 2 is thinner — 33% thinner. Thinner than the iPhone 4. Thinner than a supermodel on a diet. It’s 8.8 mm, as opposed to 13.4 mm for the original iPad. And it’s slightly lighter at 1.3 lbs.
It will also come in white, from day one, and the 3G version will be available on Verizon and AT&T from day one. And when is day one? March 11 in the US, March 25 in other countries.
Front and rear cameras will be built in. How well will they work? We’ll have to wait and see. Photo Booth, the Mac app that lets you take fun pictures of yourself, is included.
Also, the iPad is now HDMI compatible, which means you can plug it into your TV or a large screen. That, says Jobs, will work with “every app.” It’ll cost you an extra $39 for the HDMI cable converter.
Also notable, says Jobs, is what hasn’t changed. The battery life is still in the 10-hour range. And the price is the same: $499 for the basic 16GB Wi-fi version, heading up to $829 for the 3G model with 64GB.
Apple has also made a couple of cool new iPad 2 cases. They have magnets on them that attach automatically to the screen. The iPad 2 will automatically wake when the case is opened, and the case folds back to put you in prime typing position. Cost: $39 for the plastic version, $69 for leather. Sorry, folks, this will not work with the original iPad: the case connects to magnets that are inside the iPad 2.
Finally, something us iPad owners have been asking for since iOS4 came out: you can tell the iPad 2 whether the button on the side will lock the rotation or mute the device. Thanks, Apple!
And that’s it for the hardware. Jobs moves on to software: the slightly tweaked iOS 4.3, and an improved version of Air Play, which lets you share media (such as songs and slideshows) between the iPad and other devices. iTunes sharing is built in — so you can stream your whole music library to your iPad, at least when your iPad and your computer are on the same network. FaceTime is now available on the iPad. The video editing software iMovie also gets a significant update, and will be available in an iPad version for $4.99.
Also, there’s a $5 version of Garage Band, which looks very cool and will let you plug in your guitar to the iPad, among a host of fully-fledged Garage Band features.
Best Picture loser The Social Network may have spawned its share of parodies, but has it, pray tell, inspired a truly epic remix? That’s an area (aside from the obvious) where Oscar winner The King’s Speech has the “Facebook Movie” beat.
Bonus: This NSFW video (language) was made by Eclectic Method, who VJ’d and DJ’d the Mashable Awards Gala.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
When a large brand like Pepsi or Old Spice decides to use video, there are a lot of factors they have to consider: What message is their video expressing? How will it affect their customers? When should they release it for maximum impact?
Small businesses have to contend with all those same issues, but with smaller staffs and less money. Despite the challenges, there is value in video for small businesses, even if you’re a video greenhorn. We found four businesses that have had real world success thanks to video.
These are just some examples of what to do, and even what to avoid if you’re looking to add video to your small business’s promotional mix. What advice can you offer? Has video been a hit for you? Let us know about your successes or lessons in the comments below.
Yup, you read that right, pen fishing rods. Odds are it’s hard to wrap your head around the idea without the help of the video above. Michael Di Pippo is the inventor of the “world’s smallest fishing rods and reels.” About the size of a large pen, the rods telescope out to reveal a 5’3″ of fully functional fishing rod. Based out of New York, the company has four full-time employees and distributors worldwide.
Di Pippo decided to use video, specifically YouTube, to give product demos and preview his product because there was a built-in market, it was free, and he was able to add tags like “Fishing,” “Camping,” and “Outdoors” to give his videos more reach. “If you can make a product look like it’s fun, effective and great in a video, it would be enough to make other people want to join in and make videos with your product,” Di Pippo said. “To date there are more than 100 videos on YouTube made by happy customers from all over the globe using my products.”
Because of this exposure and virality, Di Pippo said his company has experienced phenomenal growth. As a result, Di Pippo puts constant work into maintaining his company’s video presence. He makes sure to respond to user comments, which turns into sales. “[Users] would ask specific questions about the products and as long as you were polite and answered them, the customers felt like you took the time to interact with and cater to them,” Di Pippo said. “So they decided to reward your kindness and spend money with the company.”
Her Campus is an online magazine and college marketing firm aimed at providing news and resources to its predominantly college-aged female crowd. Founded at Harvard, it has grown to include 112 other college branches with their own reporters and editors. The site started to use video as a way of engaging its audience, and as an ace in the hole when dealing with marketers. Co-founder Windsor Hanger explained: “We ran a marketing program for New Balance, for example, in which we had college students vlog [video blog] about their workouts. A lot of the videos took on a really interesting instructional slant — the girls started teaching our readers the proper way to do crunches, for example.” Being able to show that on video made them more enjoyable than reading dry, instructional text.
Hanger estimated that 5 to 10% of Her Campus’s client deals now have some video component. Still, there are challenges to adding video — it can be difficult to tell what videos will perform or go viral, and it’s difficult to factor video content and tags into your site’s SEO. “The more video you do, the better idea you’ll have of what resonates with your readers and what doesn’t,” Hanger said. “Even if you can’t predict which videos are going to go viral, videos add an extra element to your site that will make you more approachable to your customers/users/readers.”
When the real estate market took a hit, Graham Hunt shaved his business selling properties in Spain, down to a one-man show. Online tools, including video, have helped him stay on top of the market. Hunt initially made videos to show off houses to potential customers, but realized their broader use: “I soon realized that my clients, usually foreigners from Northern Europe and the States, don’t just buy a house, they buy a lifestyle and a dream. So I started making videos about what it was like to live here.”
Hunt made 100 small tip videos in the span of four days and began releasing them on video sites like YouTube and Tubemogul every day. The videos help to pre-sell both the home and Hunt himself as a local authority. “People come here after following the videos and are already pre-sold knowing that they can trust [me], because I have previously told them everything they need to watch out for and they already ‘know’ me.”
As a result of his video, Hunt says his client visits increased by 225% and sales and rentals more than doubled. Hunt has also been approached by publications and media outlets for information on locales in Spain.
The main challenge for Hunt was finding the right tone for the videos. He needed to appear knowledgeable but not come off as a know-it-all. “The best bit of advice is really just to do it. I use a simple Kodak Zi* for the videos and have incorporated an external mic for the 100 videos,” Hunt said. “Doing the recordings is easy. Editing is a bit more long winded.”
Remontech provides remote monitoring for construction projects as a tool for project management. Essentially, they will set up cameras to enable you to see a construction project as it happens. A family business based out of St. Thomas, Ontario, Remontech has less than 10 full-time employees.
Video was a no-brainer for Remontech, whose product is itself video-based monitoring. The company features time-lapse videos on their homepage: Aside from showcasing their product, the videos are also an entertaining look at construction as it takes place. “We market to the well-established construction industry, where it is hard to introduce new technologies,” said Remontech Project Manager Cesar Abeid. “As a result, we constantly need to educate potential clients on what it is that we provide and why it will enhance their construction management experience. Since our services are highly visual, we realized that it would be better to show our potential clients what we do, instead of simply talking about it.”
As a result of the videos, Abeid says the company has landed sales, increased traffic to their site, and charted a significantly lower bounce rate. Abeid also mentioned the ability to add video tags to YouTube videos, enabling the company to reach a larger audience. As he summarized: “A picture is worth a 1,000 words. A video is worth 1,000 pictures.”
