Social media election reactions that made us laugh, cry, and proud to be Americans

Social media played a huge role in garnering raw reactions from American citizens, and here's how you guys made us feel after an eventful 24 hours.

Decision 2012 is officially made and President Barack Obama will serve four more years as our nation’s leader. If you were like any of us here at Digital Trends, you were probably glued to Twitter, apps, and various news sources for the latest election updates. And like most current events as told by social media, there was a lot of information to sift through that made us laugh, cry, and even proud to be Americans — and for taking the opportunity to exercise our freedom of speech.

Laugh

Fools clinging to relevance

The amount of incoherent tweets from absent-minded people could not have made our office laugh any louder. The superstar troll this season, and maybe every political season, easily goes  to Donald Trump, who tweeted: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Wait, is that supposed to be radical? Global warming isn’t a scientific issue, and Hurricane Sandy was just a random and devastating fart from the clouds?

Then, after Barack Obama was declared re-elected, good ol’ Don had the nerve to call the poll results BS and say America is not a democracy… even though the president won by a significant popular vote as well. Try harder, Mr. Trump.

Sarah Palin’s hair disaster

Via citylightsanddrunkhighfives

We swear this isn’t a way to be sexist because we’d absolutely point out if John McCain appeared on television with a horrible toupee, but our jaws dropped when Sarah Palin appeared on Fox News last night looking… well, different. During the 2008 campaigns, we remembered her as a relatively put-together woman with her hair neatly held back and a possible Bumpit hidden under that volumized poof. Last night, Palin proved that the recently released photo of her in big 80s hair, off-shoulder cropped top, and wedge heels while shopping at Kmart in Los Angeles isn’t just a phase. She’s officially lost it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s patriotism

This was a hard call — does this gem belong under the Laugh or the Proud sections? We’re pretty happy for Arnold Schwarzenegger on his road to citizenship, but we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone go this all out when they first received their United States passport. It’s adorable, sweet, personable, but let’s face it: It’s also hilarious. Were you inspired to go out and vote after this photo? And for the green card holders, are you aspiring for the same kind of celebration one day? Oh, sweet, sweet Arnold.

Proud 

Inventive ways to follow the elections

Back in the day (and by that we mean two elections ago) people used to sit around and actually watch television to keep up with state tallies and news analytics. These days, we have apps, widgets, even an HTML5-infused comic strip to help illustrate the journey of how we got to Election Day 2012. Following the elections has never been so interactive, creative, and dare we say, fun, to keep up with … in an effortless manner, no less. We are continually stunned by how app developers, Web designers, and graphic artists manage to find ways to make all this information digestible and approachable depending on your personal interests and styles.

Obama hits Reddit one last time

In the late afternoon of Election Day 2012, the POTUS decided that since he already had an account on Reddit, he might as well put it to good use to garner some last-minute Internet followers’ votes. “Think of it as upvoting,” he writes in a completely relevant and connected way to target his Reddit audience. He even referenced the viral Not Bad rage face. If there’s anything we learned this political season, it’s that the Web should also be considered a campaign stop, and probably the most cost-efficient one as well.

Amazing political discourse on Quora

Quora is a great place to hit up when you’ve got questions you’re dying to find a logical, reasonable answer to, and the open-minded discussions on that site made us truly proud of our fellow American Netizens. Especially when the question was as simple as “What is President Barack Obama like in person?” It’s hard to envision any politician as a regular guy, but Peter Marquez, a former White House director for Space Policy (who’s also a republican), managed to do it in a completely unbiased manner. The discussion adds a sense of familiarity and a new personable level that reveals a different side to the president. Whether or not this had to do with your voting decision is another story, but we’re proud of the Internet nonetheless for using resources in a respectful and insightful way.

Social media trends soar

Twitter is one of the biggest go-to sources for real-time reactions to current events, from the Super Bowl to Hurricane Sandy updates. Decision 2012 was no different. Members of the social media world took to Twitter and Facebook to encourage friends to vote and make their voices heard, noting that you can’t complain about losing if you don’t vote. According to the latest Twitter update, about 31 million tweets were shared yesterday, hitting a peak of 327,452 Tweets per minute – right around when the president was declared re-elected.

Pepsi commercials and celebrity endorsements might be cool for most social issues, but Twitter takes the cake on spreading the word this election season (on top of the president himself on Reddit). It was also nice to see politicians offer congratulatory remarks to the president, and thanking voters for their support.

But of course, social media’s power did not come without hiccups, which brings us to our next segment…

Cry 

Instagramming your ballots

We get it, Instagram is everywhere. It’s in your local restaurant, bus stop, park, airport, and it’s an overall visual way to chronicle your life. But do explain to us what is so awesome about a piece of paper that shows you’ve voted? Are we going to start encouraging high school students to Instagram their SAT scores now? We know you mean well by proving your civic engagement, but we’re pretty sure no one would lie about taking part in democracy at a crucial time. Consider your voice heard, and keep those ballot photos to yourself. After all, it actually is illegal to photograph your voting booth in several states.

Google searches for “Who’s running for president” spike

Really, America? You waited until the last possible moment to figure out who the presidential nominees are this year or when election day is? It’s one thing to be undecided till the last minute, but completely clueless is unforgivable. This misguided, uninformed, careless inactiveness is everything that’s wrong with America. If you had to search on the day of the elections, we have to cry over the fact that people like you have the power to vote.

#VoteBlack and #VoteWhite hashtags remind us racism still exists

Let’s just get one thing straight in America: Barack Obama is not the first African American man to ever run for president. Turning this election into a race-based decision is as good as Donald Trump’s repeated taunts and challenges to bully Obama for his birth certificate and college transcript: Degrading, tasteless, and offensive. Worse, some of the offending tweets with the hashtag offered completely inappropriate remarks, showing just how vile people can be.

We had to blur out some horrible vernacular, but you can use your imagination as to what these words might have been. Thankfully, plenty of other tweets with the same hashtags shared our sense of disgust. Guess what, haters?

 

Technology is the clear loser in the elections

We obviously love, live, and breathe technology here at Digital Trends, but we have to admit: Real world instances of tech did not fare well during the elections whatsoever. A touchscreen voting machine in Pennsylvania seems to have spazzed out and auto-changed Obama votes to Romney. New Jersey’s email voting option backfired on residents because county email inboxes couldn’t handle the requests. Even if we can vote online, the opportunity opens e-voters to fraud and will make it that much harder to accurately tally the polls. Although we’re in this to help society advance, it seems the ol’ paper ballot is still the trustworthy method.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How To Keep your Online Accounts Safe and Secure

If you’ve just started an Internet business, or love being online for long hours, you’ll have to keep track of lots of different accounts on many websites. They might be social networking sites, instant messengers, forums, membership sites, or resources sites. Managing all these online accounts can be very difficult unless you possess a very sharp memory. You should never register all your online accounts with the same username or password. This is one of the best ways to keep your online accounts safe because if anybody finds out your login or password, they can hijack most of your online accounts. You should use different login and password for each of your account.

How to create a safe password?

You should use random characters for your passwords, but if you are unable to remember them, you can use password manager. It is not a good idea to let your browser remember all your passwords because hackers can hack your OS and get your usernames and passwords. Aside from that, if something worse happens to your PC, you can lose them forever.

Use password managers 

You can use password managers as they are not only safe, but can also help you in coming up with random passwords for use, and will remember them for future use. Best of all, they are safe, as all your data is encrypted and even if some hacker is able to log into your computer, they won’t be able to access your confidential data. You can also make a file with all your passwords, and store it elsewhere for safety. Some password managers even allow users to synchronize their data with their secure online servers. This helps you in accessing your passwords even when you are working on a different computer. In any case, you should avoid writing your usernames and password somewhere on paper. This can be risky because anybody can read the information if you fail to keep it safely. One Password manager I can recommend is Roboform, there are several others that are equally as good

Beware of phishing scams!

There are many websites on the Internet that have been made to steal personal information and data stored on computers. This is done using cookies and viruses. Some sites are designed exactly like other famous websites where you have accounts. For instance, PayPal constantly reminds its users that it never asks for usernames and passwords from its users. Yet, you may sometimes get emails that appears to have been sent by PayPal, which says that your account may have been compromised and that you should immediately change your password by clicking on the link and log into your PayPal account. This is called phishing scam that is designed by a con to get your personal details.

You should never share any of your personal information on any site that you are not sure of. Although most of the websites are run by hardworking and honest people, but you are not sure of the ways they handle your personal information. Therefore, if you don’t know much about them, and how they will handle your personal details, you should not share any with them. When searching for some products, services or information, use only one search engine, such as Google. If Google finds any dubious website, it will warn you beforehand on its search result page. Lastly, you should never respond to strange emails that come from sources you do not know. You should never click on links in these emails.

Tags: Internet Account Safety, Internet Account Security, Online Account Safety, Online Account Security

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Get ready to vote with apps for poll locations, candidate summaries, and more

The countdown has begun for Election Day 2012. With only a few hours left until the polls open, here are the Web and mobile resources you should have on speed dial to make casting your ballot as pain-free as possible.

The United States will know who its president is for the next four years by Tuesday night – assuming nothing goes wildly wrong, of course. (We’re looking at you, year 2000.) In the mean time, tens of millions of Americans will flood to polling locations around the country to cast their vote – a feat made abnormally difficult for those in the Northeast thanks to Hurricane Sandy upheaval. Lucky for everyone, the Pew Center on the States has created the Voter Information Project (VIP), and partnered with some of the biggest technology companies in the U.S., to keep voters in-the-know on Election Day.

“The way VIP works is, states directly participate in the feeds. They provide official election information, including what’s on the ballot, the polling place information,” David Becker, Director of Election Initiatives at the Pew Center on the States, told Digital Trends. “And we’ve even collected information that we call ‘rules of the road,’ which are relevant election rules that everyone should know.” These rules include things like whether you need an ID to vote in your state.

All of this data collected by the VIP from state election offices is the fed through an API, which tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and AT&T, have used to create Web and mobile tools for voters. Here are the VIP tools – plus a couple bonus resources – you should know about on Tuesday.

Google Voter Information Tool

Google’s Voter Information Tool, which can be embedded into any website, incorporates Google Maps and VIP election data to create perhaps the most useful mashup on the Web. With a quick search of your address, you’ll find out all the presidential and congressional candidates on your local ballot, their party affiliation, and a link to your state’s online election hub, which provides additional details.

Facebook

Facebook has also joined in on the VIP party, with its own polling place locator, which is built into the social networks U.S. Politics page. Users can also tell their friends about their Election Day plans with the “I’m Voting” pledge. At the time of this writing, roughly 344,000 people told their Facebook friends that they plan to vote.

VoterHub app

Built by AT&T and Politics360, VoterHub is a free app for iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone devices that provides everything from polling place locations to Associated Press real-time coverage of Election Day. It also allows users to share information easily through the gamut of social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, as well as email. If you don’t feel like downloading an app that – let’s face it – you’re going to delete by Wednesday, you can simply visit VoterHub.us to access all the Election Day goodies.

Foursquare I Voted

Late last week, Foursquare unveiled a new free app called I Voted, which also provides polling place locations, and details about what you’ll find on your local ballot. Once you’ve voted, you’ll receive a “I Voted” badge, and be placed on Foursquare’s real-time map of I Voted users.

Video the Vote

Finally, we have the Video the Vote project, which urges citizens to document any suspicious activity at their polling places using their smartphones. Video the Vote provides concerned voters with all the information they need to properly record things like vote intimidation, and how to share their videos with the public. To join the Video the Vote project, click here.

Image via Chromatika/Shutterstock

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Windows 8 and New Apps Launched At Microsoft Event in New York

Image credit: Joanna Stern / ABC News

After 1.2 billion hours of testing, Windows 8 is ready. Or at least that’s what Microsoft came to New York City today to tell the media.

At an event on Pier 57, the company detailed its new operating system, which is meant for all sorts of computers, including tablets, laptops and desktops.

“This is the best release of Windows ever,” Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said on stage.

Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows, detailed the new operating system and the momentum around it at the event. There will be more than 1,000 Windows 8 computers at launch, including tablets, ultrabooks, laptops and desktops. Starting tomorrow, Windows 8 will be available for download and pre-loaded on new computers and tablets.

Windows 8 is the biggest change to Windows since Windows 95, Sinofsky said on stage. While there is still the traditional desktop, it is really just an app on the new Start Screen. The new Start Screen is full of colorful tiles or apps, which you can buy in the new Windows Store. While much of the software is designed for touch, you can still use a mouse and keyboard with it. Office 2013 is also available for the operating system and has a new touch mode.

“You’re not going to find that phenomenal productivity experience on any other tablet,” Ballmer said when discussing the new Office.

Microsoft has received criticism in early reviews, including ours, of its own Surface RT tablet, about the lack of apps available in its store. “We see today as a grand opening and a very solid one. Developers are adding hundreds of new apps everyday,” Sinofsky said.

Today already a number of new apps have been added, including ABC News’ own app. Additionally there are new apps from The New York Times, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Instant Video, ABC television and Nickelodeon.

Check out our behind the scenes look at Windows 8. 

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

1 in 10 Viewers Watched Debates on TV Plus 1 Additional Screen

Image credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo

 Take a look at the constant stream of tweets during the debates (there were 10 million within two hours of the first debate between Obama and Romney), and it’s  obvious that not only are people watching the feuding candidates on TV but  also on their phones, computers  or tablets.

According to a study released by the Pew Research Center for the Press and the People, 85 percent of those who tuned in to the debate last week watched  it on live TV, but 11 percent  followed it online, either on a computer, phone or tablet. That means that one in 10 Americans used the two- or double-screen approach, watching TV while also holding a mobile device (phone or tablet) or computer.

Most of those who were following online were younger. Thirty-two percent of those younger than 40 said they tracked the debate online. The post-debate survey was conducted after the first presidential debate in a series of phone interviews with a national sample of 1,006 adults.

Pew also has some interesting stats when it comes to the social media activity. Only one-third of that 5 percent who followed the debates online said they shared their reactions online via Facebook  or Twitter. Interestingly, there wasn’t a major difference along party lines in technology usage.

More details on the survey can be found on the Pew website, but it’s pretty clear that while the majority continues to stick to the boob tube for these major political events, the smaller, more portable screens are starting to provide another avenue for at least 10 percent.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Netflix confirms loss of streaming content from A&E Networks

More than 800 hours of content from A&E Networks disappeared from Netflix's Watch Instantly service on Friday, and it may not be coming back quick enough for the streaming provider, thanks to complicated negotiations.

If you’ve been spending your downtime this summer catchng up on such shows as Hoarders or Pawn Stars on Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service, you may have been surprised this weekend when you went to continue your catch-up spree. Don’t worry, however; you weren’t falling victim to some kind of well-intentioned televisual intervention via long-distance proxy when you couldn’t find the shows on the service. It turns out, around 800 hours of content from A&E and affiliated networks was taken from the service on Friday, and more is on the way out.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmation from Netflix that the A&E titles were removed from the service at the end of last week. “A number of titles expired today, that is true, but we have titles coming on and off all the time,” reported Netflix spokesman Joris Evans when asked about the disappearance of shows including not only Hoarders and Pawn Stars, but also Storage Wars, American Pickers and several others. As Evans’ statement may suggest, Netflix is playing down the show’s disappearance, and with some reason; the company is actually still in negotiation with A&E over a new agreement that would see the various shows return to the service sooner rather than later, in which case, why draw attention to what may end up being a hiccup in service?

On the other hand, there’s the other hand. The negotiations between A&E and Netflix didn’t lead to an agreement in time for uninterrupted service, and they are still ongoing three days into the shows being offline with, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s unnamed sources, no end in sight. The issue that hasn’t been settled isn’t, apparently, anything to do with money but exclusivity, interestingly enough; Netflix is said to be asking for “some level of exclusivity that A&E is unwilling to grant.”

It’s possible that this could be a sign of things to come for Netflix. With the rise of alternate streaming avenues for broadcasters – Amazon Prime and Hulu, to name just two, not to mention the continually-rumored Apple variation on the idea that may or may not be connected with the equally long-rumored Apple TV product – Netflix may find more and more often that broadcasters have no problem with the idea of sharing their content with streaming services, but are increasingly unwilling to limit the number of services that their content is available on, no matter how much money is offered to sweeten the deal. In this, Netflix may be a victim of its own success; having proven the value of streaming content, now they have to deal with a market in which the content providers recognize the value of their content in this context.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Hostage situation unfolds over Facebook, ends peacefully

Definitely a tense situation for several hours this morning, police were able to end a hostage situation safely with Facebook in the mix.

Covered in detail on the New York Times earlier today, a hostage standoff in Pittsburgh ended without harm today after police successfully convinced 22-year-old Klein Michael Thaxton to give up peacefully. However, it’s possible that a few Facebook comments also helped encourage the military veteran to release his 58-year-old hostage. Around 8 a.m. this morning, Thaxton entered a large office building and took the elevator to the 16th floor. Thaxton entered the offices of CW Breitsman Associates, a company that handles employee-benefits programs for outside businesses, and took CEO Charles Breitsman hostage. It’s unclear if there was a previous relationship between Thaxton and Breitsman prior to this incident.

While some reports from people previously inside the building indicated that Thaxton was carrying a rifle, Thaxton was armed with a kitchen knife and hammer when he took Breitsman hostage. Police also thought that Thaxton could have been carrying some sort of explosive in addition to the firearm. 

As Pittsburgh police gathered outside the building to begin negotiating, Thaxton started posting depressing status updates on his Facebook page. In one of the posts, Thaxton stated “‘this life im livin rite now i dnt want anymore. ive lost everything and I aint gettin it back.“

During the day, Thaxton attempted to reach out to family members as well. In one of the updates, Thaxton posted “welln pops youll never have to woryy about me again you’ll nevr need to by me anything no need to ever waste ur hard earned money on me. i’ll live n jail you dnt want me around anymore thats kool bye…i love u assata sis.” As the hostage situation become more public, more of Thaxton’s friends and family posted to the page in an attempt to encourage him to give up without harming himself or others. 

According to Boston.com, police wanted to keep the Facebook page open at first in order to keep Thaxton talking and hoped that he would release more specific details about the situation inside the office. Regarding the use of the Facebook page, Pittsburgh police chief Nate Harper stated “It helped because it let the suspect know people cared about him. It was helpful because he was focusing on Facebook rather than harming the victim.”

As the hostage situation continued, police noticed that some people were encouraging Thaxton to continue the standoff. At this point, police moved quickly to cut off his access to the page. According to Harper, the people that left those messages could be charged as accessories to the crime.

After the comments started becoming more distracting, Harper also told the local press “We would hope his friends would stop communications on Facebook, let our trained negotiators deal with this matter.”

Around 2 p.m., police negotiators and Thaxton’s mother convinced Thaxton to give up and end the public spectacle that he was watching on television within the offices of CW Breitsman Associates. Thaxton has been charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping and terroristic threats for his actions today. Breitsman was unharmed during the incident and was reunited with his family shortly after the hostage situation came to an end.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple boasts 2 million iPhone 5 units sold in 24 hours

Apple claims a new record, with more than 2 million iPhone 5 units pre-ordered in the first 24 hours.

Apple sold more than 2 million iPhone 5 units in the first 24 hours of pre-order availability, the company boasted in a press release this morning. That’s more than twice the 1 million iPhone 4S units the company sold last year — more than twice! See, the iPhone 5 isn’t as boring as you thought, according to Apple.

Last year, Apple sold app approximately 1 million iPhone 4S units in the first 24 hours, and more than 4 million units during the first weekend. We wouldn’t be surprised to see another press release from Apple touting record weekend sales of the iPhone 5 as well.

The iPhone 5 went on sale at about 12:01a.m. in U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore on Friday, September 14. The iPhone 4S, on the other hand, was not initially available in Hong Kong and Singapore, which presumably helped boost early iPhone 5 sales figures.

AT&T, the first U.S. wireless service provider to offer the iPhone, also released a statement this morning saying that the iPhone 5 is “the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered.” The iPhone 5 is also available through Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the U.S., as well as a number of smaller carriers.

Due to the supposedly unprecedented demand for the latest iPhone, Apple says that “initial supply” of the smartphone has already been depleted. While “the majority” of pre-ordered iPhone 5 units will arrived on customer doorsteps by the previously promised September 21 launch date, says Apple, some people who pre-ordered the iPhone 5 won’t receive their devices until sometime in October.

All 356 Apple retail stores in the U.S. will begin selling the iPhone 5 at 8a.m. on September 21 — but you’ll likely have to stand in line to get one. Fortune reports that Apple fans in New York City have already begun camping out for the big launch. A better bet is to hit up an AT&T, Verizion, or Sprint retail shop, which will begin selling the iPhone 5 in-store at the same time as Apple.

The iPhone 5 features a new, 4-inch Retina display made with in-cell technology, 4G LTE connectivity, an A6 system-on-chip, dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, and the new iOS 6 mobile operating system. People with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S can all update to iOS 6 on Wednesday, September 19.

To learn all the details of the iPhone 5, click here. And check out our complete breakdown of iOS 6 here.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Nokia issues apology for faked PureView video ad

Busted within 24 hours of posting the promotional ad online, Nokia backpedals regarding a misleading video featuring PureView technology.

Detailed on the Conversation by Nokia blog, editor-in-chief Heidi Lemmetyinen released an apology for misleading consumers with a video that was meant to show off how optical image stabilization helps when shooting high definition video on smartphones like the Lumia 920. The concept of the video in question was designed to show the difference between shooting with OIS turned on compared to shooting when it’s unavailable. In the video, the side-by-side-comparison video stream shows a couple riding bicycles and the twenty-something man is filming a young girl with a Nokia smartphone using PureView and OIS as they speed down the street. 

Noted by many people on YouTube and other news organizations, a van can be seen filming the girl with a high-end dSLR or video camera in a reflection off the window of a nearby trailer around the 27 second mark of the video. Not only was the video taken while someone rode in a stable car compared to a less stable bicycle, the type of camera used was completely different from the PureView camera in the Lumia 920.

In the apology, Lemmetyinen stated “In an effort to demonstrate the benefits of optical image stabilization (which eliminates blurry images and improves pictures shot in low light conditions), we produced a video that simulates what we will be able to deliver with OIS. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but we should have posted a disclaimer stating this was a representation of OIS only. This was not shot with a Lumia 920. At least, not yet. We apologize for the confusion we created.”

In addition to the written apology, Lemmetyinen posted a video shown at the press conference that displayed the difference between shooting with a smartphone without OIS and a Lumia 920 prototype with OIS turned on. While Nokia didn’t identify the other smartphone in the video, the side displaying the OIS feature clearly shows a significantly smoother video stream while someone is walking and filming toward a fixed spot.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How to create a customized iPhone case with Trϋ Protection

At $30, you can have a customized iPhone case shipped within 48 hours after the design is received. Join us on the hands-on to see how we make it happen.

Lots of iPhone case designs out there, but none that truly speaks to you? There’s where customization comes in handy. Several cellphone protection companies thrive on this business so it’s natural to get flustered by the options. But if you’re someone who is environmental conscious, Trϋ Protection’s customized iPhone 4/4S case might be of your interest. Using 100 percent recycled material body, the company’s products are all entirely made in the United States with a kind of eco-friendliness that made it impossible for us not to give the iPhone custom case a sample.

Custom creations

To get started, you’ll need your desired photo at as high a quality as possible. If you’re a Photoshop pro, this means resizing the photo at 300 dpi in CMYK color and making sure it still fits the dimensions of an iPhone. If whatever I said said sounds like gibberish, let’s just go with a photo that exceeds 1,000 pixels per side. That should give it plenty of room to not look pixelated when the printing process takes place.

You can upload your photo directly on Trϋ Protection’s Customize tab, selecting your base case color to begin. After the photo has been uploaded, you can move the picture around to center the print, or optionally add text, quotes, and other graphic effects to enhance your design. When you are satisfied with the result, you can preview the case before submitting the item for production.

Wait! Not so fast. To cover Trϋ Protection’s bases, the company asks that you accept a copyright agreement that states you own the picture uploaded. This is standard, and smart on the company’s part to make sure no one is ripping off art from the Web and creating their own products — whether for personal or commercial use. So as much as you might like the Digital Trends logo, sorry folks, original artwork or photographs only. 

Once the Trϋ Protection team receives your design, they will examine the graphics to ensure your JPEG is a usable size. If there are any issues along production, the company will reach you to you personally to get a better photo or notify you of an issue. If all goes well, the product is printed and shipped within 48 hours after the design was received.

So, how does it look?

Much like our last hands-on with Trϋ Protection’s Spirit of Competition Olympic-themed iPhone cases, the material is identical. The recycled plastic body is minimal, a bit brittle, and somewhat tough to get on and off our iPhone.

The print itself, however, is quite high quality. We see no pixelation, the colors are absolutely accurate, and the matte finish looks lovely. The only thing we would have wanted to do is shift the print up a little bit to center the graphics, but that’s a pure aesthetic issue.

At $30, Trϋ Protection’s customized iPhone case service is an affordable price and competitive to pay for a personalized item. At the rate of other customized iPhone pieces beginning at $40, there’s a lot of value to good quality, fast turnaround time, and an eco-friendly motto. We’re just holding out now for something similar on Android at such variety of options.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple store cuts? Tech giant reportedly reducing working hours of staff and axing recent hires

It seems that Apple is in the midst of reducing the working hours of staff at its retail stores, and even laying off those recently taken on.

Apple has reportedly been making cuts to its retail workforce, many of them new employees fresh out of the store’s training program.

Apple fan site MacRumors said that in recent weeks it had been told of lay-offs from a number of Apple stores – particularly in the UK – though long-term cuts in working hours for part-time staff in the US and Canada have also been reported.

According to MacRumors, one particular Apple store in the UK dismissed all employees with less than six months of service, “including a group that had been hired only one month ago and had just completed their training program.”

A separate case reported to the fan site indicated that besides new workers being laid off, some long-term retail staff who’d recently been promoted had apparently been returned to their original job position and never saw any pay increase.

An unnamed source based in the UK also told MacRumors that several training groups had been dismissed in the last week alone, “all of whom were still within their probationary periods as new employees.”

As for Apple store employees in North America, working hours have reportedly been slashed for part-time staff. Employee vacations have also been cut for full-time staff in order to reduce reliance on part-time workers.

There appears to be no obvious reason for the reported cuts and lay-offs, which come just a couple of months after reports of some fairly hefty pay rises for store workers in a bid to boost what had been considered by many to be some rather light pay packets.

Any shake-up in its retail operations will be the work of John Browett, brought in by Apple in April to oversee its retail business. Browett had been working at Dixons, a major electronics chain in the UK. While there, he made some major cuts in order to streamline the business – but Apple stores? Aren’t they performing well?

And as MacRumors points out, if the lay-offs are for real, the timing seems a little bizarre. Next month the company is almost certain to unveil the next iteration of its iPhone, a device for which demand is likely to be huge; and then soon after that we’ll be in the holiday season. It looks like the existing store employees have a busy time ahead of them.

Some 20 million visits a month are paid to the tech giant’s retail stores, of which there are currently 373 in 13 countries.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com