FLUD. Grand iOS news reader launching flood of new features
One category of apps for iOS devices not in short supply are�news readers. �There are too many to list, with a scant few that truly stand out as great from those that are garbage.
FLUD (free), a news reader for the iPad and iPhone, is one such app which can be described as great, and in the coming weeks is set to get even better.
FLUD was mentioned by apple as the top 3 news apps of 2010 along with Flipboard and Pulse, in addition to winning UI Design of the year by Fast Company.
Nice, but what is FLUD and why should you use it?
FLUD describes itself as:
?a modern, beautiful and personalized news ecosystem that empowers it?s users to engage and broadcast relevant content to their social networks.?
Some of the super features which set FLUD apart from other news readers include:
Access as many feeds as you want, at any given time, with FLUD?s grand user-interface.
Search for any RSS feeds of interest from within the application and add them with a single touch.
Mark the articles you ?love? and influence what other FLUD users will read on a minute-to-minute basis
View all articles you have ?loved? in it?s own bookmarks view.
Browse the web within the app, view a text only version, and play video with ease.
Share articles of interest on Facebook with your friends.� Email articles to your friends from within the application.
With background on the super features of FLUD and what the app offers now, here?s �where it stands at present and where this tremendous news reading option is headed.
Speaking with Bobby Ghoshal,�Founder of FLUD,
?FLUD has seen a 600% increase in users since December.. I think this is particularly interesting considering we really haven?t pursued a whole lot of press. Word of mouth is powerful!?
?We have a very engaged user base, in fact I?d say we have a pretty strong brand presence considering that we have users who create their own FLUD tshirts? one created a FLUD cake and another a FLUD cookie? we get a lot of fan art sent to our e-mails as well.?
Impressive numbers, and FLUD has some excellent, new, features in the offing. �FLUD is set to launch an Android soon. � Even more exciting is a the desktop app FLUD is going to launch. �Here?s an exclusive sneak peek of the desktop version, something users have requested in droves:
FLUD is tremendous as is, with many other, similar news readers using features pioneered by FLUD such as, social feeds, categories, bookmarking, video in-app, branded streams and more.
If you?ve yet to try FLUD, you?re missing out. �The features, the wonderful design and the creator?s constant strive for innovation and improvements make FLUD an app you?ll definitely want to pick up, and use time and again.
Have you tried FLUD? �If so, what do you enjoy most about the app, and if you haven?t which feature(s) listed above will drive you to download the app?
Download FLUD�here.
About the Author
Jeff Cormier, a graduate of SMU and the TW School of Law, is the co-founder of C4 Universe, LLC. Desire to know more? http://about.me/jffcrmr/bio...
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Silicon Prairie News gives its start-up community a voice
Silicon Prairie News gives its start-up community a voice
You?ve heard of Silicon Valley, and likely Silicon Alley, but have you heard of Silicon Prarie?
Silicon Prarie is geographically hard to define but it?s there? somewhere between Chicago and Colorado, Dallas and the Dakotas?and it?s getting noticed because of one local news source�The Silicon Prairie News.
And the Prairie?s entrepreneurs can thank one man, a native Nebraskan named Jeff Slobotski, who decided he wanted to write about the tech sector. After a few days of writing about California?s burgeoning scene, he decided to refocus his efforts on his own community. Recalling the words of my college professor, if you?re going to be a writer, write about what you know.
Slobotski�decided to give his community a voice and that voice goes by the name of�The Silicon Prairie News. He called on the skills of his then friend, now CTO and co-founder�Dusty Davidson,�who runs BrightMix, a small, local software company.��In July 2008, Slobotski�started blogging as a hobby, interviewing local entrepreneurs on his lunch breaks and publishing stories at night.
In early 2009, Slobotski took on Danny Schreiber full time as SPN?s Managing Editor. Striber?s favorite players in the SP scene? Dwolla, a mobile payments service that is giving PayPal a run for its money and RockDex, a start up that is capturing the social metrics of plays on YouTube, LastFM and MySpace for musicians.
The boys had a lot to write about, they just needed people to listen. Slobotski, Davidson and Schreiber decided to throw an event to grab the world?s attention; they called it Big Omaha.
The first Big Omaha was a success with over 550 people from 20 states including Foursquare?s Dennis Crowley, Charity: Water?s Scott Harrison and Zappo?s Tony Shea.�SPN was suddenly profitable, making money off of sponsorships and ticket sales from the event. Soon they had local businesses and Omaha?s Chamber of Commerce knocking on their door, asking if they could advertise on SPN. The readers came.
SPN currently has 4 full-time employees, 12 freelance writers and 3600 RSS feed email subscribers.�At the end of November, the site averaged 25,000 unique visitors, 45,000 page views, and was growing at 10% a month.
?If it weren?t for Silicon Prairie News, there wouldn?t be a start-up scene in the mid-west. They are our voice. Their existence reinforces our culture.? says Ben Milne, the CEO of Dwolla.
Monday through Friday, expect fresh, daily content focusing on Silicon Prairie entrepreneurs like Dwolla and Agile Sports, an online coaching application, recently named by Inc. magazine?s 30 under 30.�On the weekends, to keep traffic flowing, they?ll repurpose TED Talks or big interviews from other more well-known tech blogs.
?Our first goal is to highlight the story, the angel investors and the entrepreneurs. Our second goal is to tighten, build and connect the community and ecosystem here,? says Slobotski. ?There?s value in what we?re doing by reporting on it but our events build communities that get people talking and brainstorming ideas together.?
The overall scene in Silicon Prairie is comprised of a lot of consumer�related�tech starts up. With the large amount of capital potentially available (read: Berkshire Hathaway and everyone else who is connected to Warren Buffet by one string or another), the scene could be well funded with the right connections.
This coming week, they will launch Silicon Prairie News? Kansas City bureau, to be led by Royce Haynes. Haynes, like many SPN readers found the site through hearing about Big Omaha on Twitter. ?I didn?t expect something of this caliber to take place in Omaha, Nebraska,? he says, ?It?s going to be great to now be a part of it and to able to highlight all of the entrepreneurial activity going on in Kansas City.?
Interested in getting in on the Silicon Prairie fun? Save the date for a sweet SPN party Sunday night at SXSWi in March and a Big Omaha style event in Des Moines, Iowa this fall.
About the Author
Courtney Boyd Myers is the East Coast editor of TNW, based in NYC.
She began her career writing about robots @ Forbes and has also written for PCMag, PSFK, IEEE Spectrum, the Huffington Post + Pocket-Lint. She loves magnets + reading on her Kindle.
You can follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at Courtney@TheNextWeb.com.
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You?ve heard of Silicon Valley, and likely Silicon Alley, but have you heard of Silicon Prarie?
Silicon Prarie is geographically hard to define but it?s there? somewhere between Chicago and Colorado, Dallas and the Dakotas?and it?s getting noticed because of one local news source�The Silicon Prairie News.
And the Prairie?s entrepreneurs can thank one man, a native Nebraskan named Jeff Slobotski, who decided he wanted to write about the tech sector. After a few days of writing about California?s burgeoning scene, he decided to refocus his efforts on his own community. Recalling the words of my college professor, if you?re going to be a writer, write about what you know.
Slobotski�decided to give his community a voice and that voice goes by the name of�The Silicon Prairie News. He called on the skills of his then friend, now CTO and co-founder�Dusty Davidson,�who runs BrightMix, a small, local software company.��In July 2008, Slobotski�started blogging as a hobby, interviewing local entrepreneurs on his lunch breaks and publishing stories at night.
In early 2009, Slobotski took on Danny Schreiber full time as SPN?s Managing Editor. Striber?s favorite players in the SP scene? Dwolla, a mobile payments service that is giving PayPal a run for its money and RockDex, a start up that is capturing the social metrics of plays on YouTube, LastFM and MySpace for musicians.
The boys had a lot to write about, they just needed people to listen. Slobotski, Davidson and Schreiber decided to throw an event to grab the world?s attention; they called it Big Omaha.
The first Big Omaha was a success with over 550 people from 20 states including Foursquare?s Dennis Crowley, Charity: Water?s Scott Harrison and Zappo?s Tony Shea.�SPN was suddenly profitable, making money off of sponsorships and ticket sales from the event. Soon they had local businesses and Omaha?s Chamber of Commerce knocking on their door, asking if they could advertise on SPN. The readers came.
SPN currently has 4 full-time employees, 12 freelance writers and 3600 RSS feed email subscribers.�At the end of November, the site averaged 25,000 unique visitors, 45,000 page views, and was growing at 10% a month.
?If it weren?t for Silicon Prairie News, there wouldn?t be a start-up scene in the mid-west. They are our voice. Their existence reinforces our culture.? says Ben Milne, the CEO of Dwolla.
Monday through Friday, expect fresh, daily content focusing on Silicon Prairie entrepreneurs like Dwolla and Agile Sports, an online coaching application, recently named by Inc. magazine?s 30 under 30.�On the weekends, to keep traffic flowing, they?ll repurpose TED Talks or big interviews from other more well-known tech blogs.
?Our first goal is to highlight the story, the angel investors and the entrepreneurs. Our second goal is to tighten, build and connect the community and ecosystem here,? says Slobotski. ?There?s value in what we?re doing by reporting on it but our events build communities that get people talking and brainstorming ideas together.?
The overall scene in Silicon Prairie is comprised of a lot of consumer�related�tech starts up. With the large amount of capital potentially available (read: Berkshire Hathaway and everyone else who is connected to Warren Buffet by one string or another), the scene could be well funded with the right connections.
This coming week, they will launch Silicon Prairie News? Kansas City bureau, to be led by Royce Haynes. Haynes, like many SPN readers found the site through hearing about Big Omaha on Twitter. ?I didn?t expect something of this caliber to take place in Omaha, Nebraska,? he says, ?It?s going to be great to now be a part of it and to able to highlight all of the entrepreneurial activity going on in Kansas City.?
Interested in getting in on the Silicon Prairie fun? Save the date for a sweet SPN party Sunday night at SXSWi in March and a Big Omaha style event in Des Moines, Iowa this fall.
About the Author
Courtney Boyd Myers is the East Coast editor of TNW, based in NYC.
She began her career writing about robots @ Forbes and has also written for PCMag, PSFK, IEEE Spectrum, the Huffington Post + Pocket-Lint. She loves magnets + reading on her Kindle.
You can follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at Courtney@TheNextWeb.com.
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Review: Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Sonic
Affordable and factory overclocked, Palit's GeForce GTX 560 Ti Sonic could be the ideal iteration of Nvidia's latest mid-range Fermi.The GeForce GTX 560 Ti caused a bit of a stir last month when it first hit our test benches. We were, and still are, fans of the GTX 460 and were hoping for more of the same graphical goodness in this next generation. Unfortunately though it doesn't hold as special a place in our heart as the GTX 460 though, but that's actually nothing to do with the card itself. It's still a speedy little daemon, and it's still coming in at the price/performance sweetspot of �200.The issue here is that the market has moved onwards since the inception of the GTX 460, or more specifically the competition has moved on.There was nothing to touch the original mid-range Fermi when it came out, only Nvidia cards were competing. Now the spectre of the Radeon HD 6950, with its dual-BIOS, almost risk-free, unlocking, looms large over the field.One thing the GF 114 GPU can do though is overclock, and is another factory-assured overclocked card to give that chip a shot in the arm.As you can tell from the benchmark results the Palit GTX 560 Ti Sonic is faster than its reference-designed brethren, but lacks the raw power of the Zotac GTX 560 Ti AMP! edition's extra 50MHz clock speed.The Zotac card represents the same boost over the Palit card as that Sonic edition does over the reference design.What isn't shown here though is the performance of the competing Radeon cards, especially at the high-end, tessellation-heavy DirectX 11 benchmarks. The Nvidia and AMD cards trade blows across most of the suite, but the dual-tessellation engines of the Cayman GPU gives it the edge in the likes of Heaven 2.0 and with Metro 2033's tessellated character models.DirectX 11 tessellation performanceDirectX 11 gaming performanceOne of the things that Palit brings to the overclocking market is the ability to not only drop superior cooling onto their cards, thanks to the scale of its operation it can redesign the reference PCB and produce its own versions of the cards rather than relying on rebadged, bin-sorted reference cards.The first thing you'll notice about the Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Sonic is the fact that it is so very teeny-tiny. Compared to the increased scale of Zotac's GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! card's redesigned PCB it looks for all the world like a low-end card with an unnecessary cooler strapped to it.It's still a dual-slot card, but is significantly shorter than even the reference design. Still though Palit has managed to fit a dual-fan cooler onto it to give that stressed GPU some much-needed chilling.It does come with a pretty healthy overclock on it too. Compared to the 822MHz core clock of the reference design you're looking at 900MHz straight out of the box. That's not as crazy as the 128MHz boost you get on the Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! but it's still a pretty hefty performance hike.That's born out by the increased performance in the benchmark tests. You're looking at around a 10% increase on average across the suite, and considering the GTX 560 Ti Sonic is less than a tenner more expensive than the �199 MSRP of the reference designed cards that's pretty good.We were hoping that the redesigned PCB and improved cooling solution might enable us to reach the sort of speeds the Zotac AMP! edition is capable of out of the box, unfortunately though the GTX 560 Ti Sonic while operates at 950MHz it is a trifle flaky.That's a shame for Palit, but it does mean the Zotac card still rules the roost as the best example of the GTX 560 Ti, and almost justifies the price premium it is charging for the privilege.The Radeon HD 6950 is still a fly in the GTX 560 Ti's overclocked ointment, and it's all down to the BIOS flash that gives the reference Radeon's a transformation into fully fledged HD 6970s. I've got a feeling AMD might be starting to phase out the dual-BIOS on the Cayman cards to call a halt to the BIOS flashing, but for the moment it's still very much a possibility.And one hell of a selling point.We likedThe size of the Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Sonic is also a selling point. For those with a paucity of space in their chassis this reduced footprint could be a godsend, and should make a good base for a portable LAN rig too.It's also a very competitive price for an overclocked version. If you can't afford to stretch for the HD 6950 this Sonic edition is a good bet.We dislikedIt was a bit of a disappointment that we couldn't push it to what seems to be the GTX 560 Ti's maximum of 950MHz, but realistically that's not a huge issue considering the relative price.Final wordFor just a little more than the price of the vanilla GTX 560 Ti the Palit Sonic edition represents good value and excellent performance. That said for another tenner you can pick up a Radeon HD 6950 that's ripe for a good ol' flashing.Related LinksTechRadar's Reviews GuaranteeRead more graphics card reviewsRelated StoriesReview: MSI GeForce GTX 470 Twin Frozr IIReview: PNY GeForce GTS 450 1GBReview: Sapphire Radeon HD 5750Review: XFX Radeon HD 5770Buying Guide: Best cheap DX11 graphics card: 10 testedBurglar alarm
Interview with the eFlirt expert: Why you should be online dating
Interview with the eFlirt expert: Why you should be online dating
We work online, we order food online at SeamlessWeb, we tell people when we?re sleeping online in Skype mood messages, we get jobs online on Linkedin, we invite friends to parties online on Facebook and we meet�interesting�people who can turn into friends online on Twitter. So why are some of us still hesitant to start meeting people to date online?
Maybe you?re not, maybe you have profiles on Match, eHarmony, JDate and OKCupid, but I know a fair share of you think online dating is cheap, or you don?t need it and that it somehow kills the romance. Allow me to introduce you to Laurie Davis, the Founder of �?e-Flirt expert,? who is currently the NY Tech Dating Examiner, co-host of the weekly web show LoveNation and the moderator of a dating forum on Divorce Candy.
Davis offers a wide-range of services such as revamping your online dating profile, date-coaching and wing-womaning. She also offers VIP services where she will online date for executives who are too busy to check their messages but still want to meet people and go out on dates. ?I get to live vicariously through many different types of people,? Davis says smiling.
Davis? clients are 60% male, 40% female and from all different walks of life; they have different personalities and ages, her youngest is 20 and her oldest�is 70! As you might expect, a lot of her clients are divorcees, but there are also a lot of kids right out of�college, who have a hard time adjusting to a new form of social life.
Davis launched the site a year and a half ago but has been personally online dating for 10 years. I had the pleasure of chatting with Davis just before the Valentine?s Day season.
CBM: So why should someone start dating online?
You ever know who you?re going to meet or where you?re going to meet them. Today you might meet them at a coffee shop or you might meet them on Facebok, Twitter or Match.com.
(Davis happens to have met her boyfriend, The Professional Wingman, on Twitter.)
CBM: What tips do you have for online dating newbies?
1)�The site you choose is really important, so check out different services. Make sure you actually see women or men on there that you want to date.
2) For your profile, you want to avoid and cliches or any adjectives like ?adventurous?, ?fun?, ?cool?. Tell a story and be specific. Write about the time when you flew on a whim to Costa Rica. Be unique.
3) You need to reach out to people; women especially do not want to do this. You dont want technology to get in your way. You want it to enhance your dating life. If you see someone you like, you need to say hi.
CBM: What are the dangers of online dating?
The biggest danger is that you?re going to get really let down by the process. If you let the process take over and you focus too much on how many emails you?re sending or receiving you will be discouraged. As singles age, we feel the pressure to be in a relationship and we get caught up in the emotional aspects of dating.
CBM: What are good messaging and profile tips?
Be specific. Fill out the entire profile. Dont skip questions. Anytime you can make something a list, do it, because that means its going to be easy to skim and easy for people?s eyes to pick up on something. Lists are very good. Talk about who you are looking for but make the profile about you.
CBM: What are your favorite dating websites?
HowAboutWe is a completely different way to date, it?s great. There are also lots of fantastic apps right now. Apps are�something�everyone should have on their phone right now. I love Urban Daddy?s The Next Move and location based dating apps like�MeetMoi, UrbanSingles, Grindrr or Scout.
To be clear, I?m not affiliated with any sites and recommend different sites to singles based on their region and individual preferences. I frequently say that ?Every site is good for someone, but no one site is best for everyone.?
CBM: How do you use social media to build your brand?
I started my business on a complete whim. I?ve helped many of my friends get into many different relationships. I took $50, a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page and a blog and I started. 48 hours later and I was in business.
I mostly used Twitter. My background professionally is in marketing so I knew I needed to differentiate myself from different dating personalities. I decided to do a tip of the day on Twitter, something that wasn?t a no brainrer, something that makes you go, ?huh, I never thought about it that way.?
No matter how big the company gets, I?ll always give free advice if I can do it in two DMs.
While the eFlirt Expert brand is currently Davis, one full-time team member, part-time interns, an advisory board and a PR and marketing consultant, she?ll be hiring certified e-Flirters around the�country in the next year. This is a huge growing industry. After all, everybody wants love, and if using technology is naturally happening in the rest of our lives, why not in love?
About the Author
Courtney Boyd Myers is the East Coast editor of TNW, based in NYC.
She began her career writing about robots @ Forbes and has also written for PCMag, PSFK, IEEE Spectrum, the Huffington Post + Pocket-Lint. She loves magnets + reading on her Kindle.
You can follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at Courtney@TheNextWeb.com.
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We work online, we order food online at SeamlessWeb, we tell people when we?re sleeping online in Skype mood messages, we get jobs online on Linkedin, we invite friends to parties online on Facebook and we meet�interesting�people who can turn into friends online on Twitter. So why are some of us still hesitant to start meeting people to date online?
Maybe you?re not, maybe you have profiles on Match, eHarmony, JDate and OKCupid, but I know a fair share of you think online dating is cheap, or you don?t need it and that it somehow kills the romance. Allow me to introduce you to Laurie Davis, the Founder of �?e-Flirt expert,? who is currently the NY Tech Dating Examiner, co-host of the weekly web show LoveNation and the moderator of a dating forum on Divorce Candy.
Davis offers a wide-range of services such as revamping your online dating profile, date-coaching and wing-womaning. She also offers VIP services where she will online date for executives who are too busy to check their messages but still want to meet people and go out on dates. ?I get to live vicariously through many different types of people,? Davis says smiling.
Davis? clients are 60% male, 40% female and from all different walks of life; they have different personalities and ages, her youngest is 20 and her oldest�is 70! As you might expect, a lot of her clients are divorcees, but there are also a lot of kids right out of�college, who have a hard time adjusting to a new form of social life.
Davis launched the site a year and a half ago but has been personally online dating for 10 years. I had the pleasure of chatting with Davis just before the Valentine?s Day season.
CBM: So why should someone start dating online?
You ever know who you?re going to meet or where you?re going to meet them. Today you might meet them at a coffee shop or you might meet them on Facebok, Twitter or Match.com.
(Davis happens to have met her boyfriend, The Professional Wingman, on Twitter.)
CBM: What tips do you have for online dating newbies?
1)�The site you choose is really important, so check out different services. Make sure you actually see women or men on there that you want to date.
2) For your profile, you want to avoid and cliches or any adjectives like ?adventurous?, ?fun?, ?cool?. Tell a story and be specific. Write about the time when you flew on a whim to Costa Rica. Be unique.
3) You need to reach out to people; women especially do not want to do this. You dont want technology to get in your way. You want it to enhance your dating life. If you see someone you like, you need to say hi.
CBM: What are the dangers of online dating?
The biggest danger is that you?re going to get really let down by the process. If you let the process take over and you focus too much on how many emails you?re sending or receiving you will be discouraged. As singles age, we feel the pressure to be in a relationship and we get caught up in the emotional aspects of dating.
CBM: What are good messaging and profile tips?
Be specific. Fill out the entire profile. Dont skip questions. Anytime you can make something a list, do it, because that means its going to be easy to skim and easy for people?s eyes to pick up on something. Lists are very good. Talk about who you are looking for but make the profile about you.
CBM: What are your favorite dating websites?
HowAboutWe is a completely different way to date, it?s great. There are also lots of fantastic apps right now. Apps are�something�everyone should have on their phone right now. I love Urban Daddy?s The Next Move and location based dating apps like�MeetMoi, UrbanSingles, Grindrr or Scout.
To be clear, I?m not affiliated with any sites and recommend different sites to singles based on their region and individual preferences. I frequently say that ?Every site is good for someone, but no one site is best for everyone.?
CBM: How do you use social media to build your brand?
I started my business on a complete whim. I?ve helped many of my friends get into many different relationships. I took $50, a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page and a blog and I started. 48 hours later and I was in business.
I mostly used Twitter. My background professionally is in marketing so I knew I needed to differentiate myself from different dating personalities. I decided to do a tip of the day on Twitter, something that wasn?t a no brainrer, something that makes you go, ?huh, I never thought about it that way.?
No matter how big the company gets, I?ll always give free advice if I can do it in two DMs.
While the eFlirt Expert brand is currently Davis, one full-time team member, part-time interns, an advisory board and a PR and marketing consultant, she?ll be hiring certified e-Flirters around the�country in the next year. This is a huge growing industry. After all, everybody wants love, and if using technology is naturally happening in the rest of our lives, why not in love?
About the Author
Courtney Boyd Myers is the East Coast editor of TNW, based in NYC.
She began her career writing about robots @ Forbes and has also written for PCMag, PSFK, IEEE Spectrum, the Huffington Post + Pocket-Lint. She loves magnets + reading on her Kindle.
You can follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at Courtney@TheNextWeb.com.
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