A couple of eye-brow raising stats came out recently. The Society for New Communications Research released a study regarding journalists and their use of social media. It’s no shock that the study revealed the “use of social media tools by journalists is surging, growing in double-digit percentages in some cases.” But, as ZDNet points out… there’s interesting insight to how many of the 341 journalists surveyed are not taking advantage of social media sites.

More on social media in journalism + social media usage at work stats >>

You may have already heard: Apple is cleaning out their apps store. They’ve decided “to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store.” It’s definitely not a first for Apple… banning a particular genre of apps. According to PC World, Apple also banned GPS apps that feed the user location-aware ads and Apple-brand competing apps (such as Google Voice and “Flash of Genius” which mentions the Android).

TechCrunch uncovered this recent no-no after developed Jon Atherton, Wooble iBoobs, received a letter from iPhone App Review. Then there was the letter from Apple, that didn’t explain much. And today, a few guidelines have been uncovered through Atherton’s blog, ChilliFresh, regarding his app.

• No images of women in bikinis
• No images of men in bikinis
• No skin
• No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
• No sexual connotations or innuendo
• Nothing that can be sexually arousing
• No apps that in any way imply sexual content

Read more on the Apple Apps Store Ban on Sexy Apps >>

Loopt, a mobile application, announced they are donating $1 for every check-in at Chipotle, Whole Foods or Panera Bread before the end of Sunday. The proceeds will go towards the relief efforts in Haiti and there’s no charge to the Loopt user either. Minutes later, I read that Gowalla, a competing app, will be launching a campaign called “Hearts for Haiti” on Monday, February 8th.

The Hearts for Haiti campaign will take place in the SF Bay Area at three specified locations — two Peet’s coffee shops and the Barenaked Ladies concert. When someone uses Gowalla to check-in at one of those locations during the event, $50 will be donated in to the Red Cross in that person’s name. Gowalla hopes to reach $20,000. In addition to Gowalla’s charitable efforts, the two Peet’s locations will also be donating 10% of sales towards Haiti efforts. Details on when to go where can be found over at the Gowalla Blog.

Continue reading to learn how Loopt and Gowalla work >>

How are you saying good-bye to 2009 tonight? Sleeping like any other day? Dinner with friends? Clubbing with strangers? Counting down with Dick Clark (or is it Ryan Seacrest now)? Here at SoftwareNewsDaily, we wanted to say farewell by reminiscing our top 10 technology news stories of 2009. When I say “our” top 10 stories, I suppose it’s really more “my” top 10 stories. That’s okay, I don’t mind dominating the office opinion; they’ll agree with me. Counting down to the number one story, here are “our” picks.

Continue reading SoftwareNewsDaily’s Top 10 Tech news Stories of 2009 >>

Google has been in the news a lot lately… new technologies, new innovations, new products… It’s all about Google. And that is why I think they are eventually going to take over the world. Well, the technological world, at least… Here are a few recent “waves” (no pun intended) Google has been making:

Google Introduces Real-Time Search Results: If we aren’t overwhelmed enough, Google now has a way to search real-time results. Real-time search brings instant results from stuff that is happens on the web – blogs being posted, live tweets, news articles and web pages being published all streaming to the search engine. Read more from ZDNet or watch the video demonstration.

Continue reading about recent Google headlines >>

I was inspired by a TechCrunch article to see how Google defined software. Check out the results:

See more Google-isms at Autocomplete Me.

Okay, it’s creeping me out. And nope, it’s not because tomorrow is Halloween that I have these fears. iPhones (and iPod touch) have apps capable of almost anything nowadays. Anything meaning they are just short of taking Rosie’s place in the Jetson Family. Based on statistics from AppShopper.com, there are over 100,000 approved apps and over 90,000 available apps. So where’s the “creepy” part come in?

Let’s start small…
Pizza Hut’s app recently reached $1 million in sales. The first national pizza chain to introduce such an app, Pizza Hut has even won an OMMA (Online Media, Marketing, Advertising) Award for their innovative and fun way to order pizza. There are also other food-related apps such as Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals (helping you shop, prep and cook meals with step-by-step photos, videos and recipes), Kitchen Calculator PRO (easily figure out kitchen math) and Mixologist (complete with 7900 drink and cocktail recipes). Not too eerie, right? Well, let’s keep going…

Up it a couple of notches…
Excelsior has successfully secured several comics from Marvel for their Comixology app. With renewed interest in Spider-Woman, sparked by the Secret Invasion storyline, Marvel has also started selling “motion comics” through iTunes (also viewable on your iPhone). Other literary ventures include an electronic Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary from codefromtokyo, a real-time translator for speech from English to Spanish and vice-versa from Jibbigo and even complete electronic versions of the Bible. Aren’t we staring at our computer screens enough at work these days that we would want to read an actual publication from time to time?

I, Robot realization within grasps… Will Smith, where are you?
BMW’s Mini brand has created an app that calls a tow-truck at the push of a button. Okay, no problem, it’s like speed dial with built-in 411 service. Toyota’s Scion brand has a fun app that allows wannabe DJs to time the beats per minute (BPM) of a song by tapping his/her phone (Scion has that whole affordable, cool, student aura going for them, hence, fun things for a MP3-enable phone that will connect via the USB interface in your Scion vehicle…). Pretty neat, right? So, here’s the one that, although awesome, takes the cake for me. An iPhone app that unlocks and remotely starts your car. Yep, it’s a key fob for your phone! From Viper, a leading car alarm company, comes the SmartStart app. I’ll let this video do the talking…

Know of other crazy apps? What apps could come next? Share your ideas, opinions, thoughts! I want to know if I’m alone on this matter… my self-esteem can’t take the social pressures of being solo.

Brad Pitt is doing it with houses and architectural design. Rachel McAdams is doing it by bike. Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins did it while touring the US. Now, Microsoft is doing it with it’s latest Windows release. More companies are also getting their IT departments to jump on the bandwagon, and there’s proof!

A recent study conducted by CompTIA found that green IT is a mid to high level priority for 67 percent of organizations surveyed. In spite of the study also finding that a majority (80%) of organizations find quantifying the return on investment (ROI) of green initiatives to be a difficult task, Tim Herbert, vice president of research at CompTIA, says, “survey data suggests many organizations are willing to invest greener IT products even when the return isn’t realized immediately.” According to the study, over 75 percent of organizations expect to have a comprehensive green IT strategy within the next five years. Here are a couple of ideas to get that ball rolling…

Start with a more energy efficient server manager:
1e’s award nominated NightWatchman now comes in Server Edition, a product that puts “drowsy” computing to work. By analyzing active computing (the typical work done by computer users) and background computing (highly inefficient activity that server software performs such as antivirus updates or indexing checks), NightWatchman gauges servers to run at the lowest energy setting possible.  CEO of 1e, Sumir Karayi, mentions that “one of the largest causes of energy and IT operational waste in data centers are servers that are simply not being used.” “It’s still working,” he says, “it’s just working slower, like it’s drowsy.” Dell, for instance, saves over $1.8 billion annually by using NightWatchman across a board of 50,000 computers. Perhaps a solution where the ROI on this product could equal less than one year?

Then, update to a greener Windows:
From the greenest neck of the Windows woods comes Microsoft’s newest release, Windows 7. Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, highlights a server and client interaction that “allows IT [departments] to run a power-efficiency diagnostics chart.” The chart is then used to adjust computers for the most efficient operation. By removing certain drivers that would prevent the processor from running optimally, Windows 7 “has become much more aware of the power management capabilities within the processor and chip set.”

Well, there’s a start. Just a few thoughts to flow the green thinking again.

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In case you’ve missed the coverage surrounding the present crisis in Iran surrounding their national elections, click here for a brief run-down from The New York Times.

(OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)

A lot has been said recently about the role of social media in these recent protests in Iran. An explosion of insider Twitter updates, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, and Flickr photos have emerged from inside Iran, giving the world a view into this crisis like never before. Despite the Iranian government’s attempt to restrict the access of traditional news media to the unfolding events, hundreds of amateurs with an Internet connection have given us a view into what is actually going on.

The Twitter hashtag #IranElection is being used to track tweets relating to the election and protests. While there haven’t been an abundance of tweets with relevant information, many point to videos, photos, and blogs with extensive insider stories. Twitter is able to viralry spread current information like never before. It’s powerful search capabilities and tagging by its users gives a true, real-time glimpse into these Iranian protests.

Major social networking sites have helped participate in this new type of political activism by delaying network downtime to make sure pertinent information gets through, promoting Persian language translators, and reducing restrictions on graphic, uncensored content. Twitter is allowing users to color their avatars green to show support for protesters.

Just by searching #IranElection on Twitter, you can see first hand the outpouring of support surrounding this global event. It is truly amazing that these social media sites can all come together to support a uniform cause on the other side of the world.

With the stifling of traditional media outlets by the Iranian government, people around the globe have been actively following social media feeds to understand what is happening. All of this information comes at you in real time, and without censorship. It is a far cry from polished and fact-checked news stories you would typically get on TV and in the newspaper. Because of this, many facts are often skewed or completely falsified. It is up to you to sift through the voluminous streams of information and form your own conclusions. Is this better than listening to talking heads on FoxNews? I think so, but it takes a whole lot more work on our part.

For a complete timeline of these recent events, along with the accompanying social media stories, check out this post by Ben Parr on Mashable. It’s a great read, but a word of caution, there is some extremely graphic content.

With social media sites penetrating even the most oppressed areas of the planet, there is no doubt that we are embarking on a revolutionary new way to communicate with people around the globe.

I just game across this post on Please Enjoy, by the Google Creative Lab team. Scott Suiter of Google asked random people in Times Square questions about their browser and search engines. The responses he got are a little surprising and definitely funny.

Of the people interviewed that day, only 8% actually knew what an Internet browser was. Most people just associated a browser with the task that they do most often, which is search the web. Most likely Google is their homepage, and they just think of it as their gateway to the Internet.

Some of the most searched for terms in Google include web addresses, with people actually typing the www or .com into the search box. People know a search box will get them where they are going, and they don’t think about it much after that.

This video was definitely an eye opener, since most of the people I interact with in my life are fairly proficient with technology. Web designers should keep these people in mind when designing their next page or app. Most people don’t care how it works, they just want to get there and get the information they need.

Enjoy.