The number of adults in the U.S. who make phone calls over the Internet has risen exponentially in recent years.
The freelance lifestyle is a not a typical 9-to-5. It brings its own set of challenges and benefits, and this infographic celebrates them all. From working in one’s pajamas to (knock on wood) an early retirement, from calculating your own taxes to paying for your own insurance, the freelancer’s route and balance between life and career is a little bit different. If freelancing is something you’ve considered, check out a recent post we wrote on how to score freelance gigs . And if you’ve got tips for current or would-be freelancers, we invite you to leave them in the comments. Click image to see full-size version. Graphic courtesy of FreshBooks More About: freelance , freelance work , freelancer , freelancing For more Business & Marketing coverage: Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad
Many rejoiced last month when Amazon announced that a Kindle update would add real page numbers to the device’s digital books. More than a month later, Amazon has revealed that “real” page numbers wasn’t a metaphor — the page numbers that now appear in many Kindle books are derived from the physical texts.
With its $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post this week, a company best known for distributing free CDs has succeeded where mainstream media outlets failed: Spotting the potential of one of the web’s fastest growing media brands. AOL, widely thought to be the imminent victim of a dying Internet dial-up business, now owns a property that may help define the future of news. How big is The Huffington Post , exactly? A recent report from The Street put the upstart media company just behind The New York Times in terms of web traffic — and set to overtake the Gray Lady. The New York Times was founded in 1851; The Huffington Post began in 2005. Is it pride, perhaps, that’s prevented many of the leading media brands from experimenting with aggregation, populist content and a blogging community that may at times appear amateurish? That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Read the full column at CNN.com > > More About: acquisition , aol , cnn , Huffington Post , media , social media For more Media coverage: Follow Mashable Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Media channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad
An 11.1% increase in digital advertising revenue was not enough to offset the 7.2% decline in print advertising revenue year-over-year, the New York Times Company disclosed in its fourth quarter earnings report Thursday. Overall revenue was down 2.9% to $661.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to the same quarter last year. Overall advertising revenue dropped 3.1%, while circulation revenue declined a further 3.6% Overall profit fell a full 26% compared to the same period in 2009. The company reported a profit of $67.1 million for the quarter, compared to a profit of $90.9 million in Q4 2009. Digital advertising now makes up 26% of the company’s total advertising revenues, President and CEO Janet L
It might look like a far-fetched timepiece from a sci-fi flick, but this design concept by Jonathan Frey uses E-Ink technology that’s becoming commonplace today. Not only is E-Ink breaking sales records inside Amazon Kindles and other e-readers — it’s making its debut in watches as well. This two-display beauty uses E-Ink on both screens. The bottom screen shows its striped numerals over a sinister black background, while the top display’s day and date peek through a grid of shiny black metal. Everything is controlled with buttons on the side. I’ve worn and reviewed an E-Ink watch, and it proved itself to be more energy efficient than conventional watches with LCD displays. An E-Ink watch drains its battery the most when it’s changing its numerals; the rest of the time it simply keeps time while it displays the results of the electronically charged rearrangement of its particles. Another advantage: Designers love it. E-Ink displays can be configured in radically different ways from their LCD forebears, including curved surfaces that really do look like something you might see on the wrist of Captain Picard on the deck of the USS Enterprise. And later this year, color E-Ink displays will become available.
On Black Friday, Microsoft announced that consumers would be able to buy one Windows Phone 7 device and get the second free for purchases at all AT&T stores. These phones, which retail for $199, include the LG Quantum, HTC Surround and Samsung Focus. Is this just a typically lowball Black Friday sale? Or is this indicative of lackluster sales for Windows Phone 7 devices? It could be both; we won’t know for certain until we have more information about Microsoft’s numbers for Windows Phone 7 sales. Still, this sale, however conveniently timed, is reminiscent of an identical offer made for the KIN, the prematurely axed device that was Microsoft’s last big mobile attempt. In that case, low sales — some say as few as mere hundreds of units — prompted the price-slashing and rebranding of the phone in the same year it was released. If a recent poll of Mashable readers, most respondents thought the Windows Phone 7 platform would be a success .
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently speaking at an event preceding the Web 2.0 Summit, the number of messages sent on Facebook is outpacing the growth of Facebook itself. In his remarks, Zuckerberg revealed that 350 million users make use of Facebook messages, sending 4 billion a day — that’s personal messages, not messages from Pages or Groups. Due to the rapid growth of Facebook messaging — and the increasingly anachronistic nature of e-mail (in his opinion) — Zuckerberg plans to revamp the service. “We don’t think a modern messaging service is going to be e-mail,” Zuckerberg says. He is currently detailing the new service . Stay on Mashable for more. More About: facebook , messaging , social media , web-2.0 For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad
Jawbone has for years produced some of the best Bluetooth headset technology, but sometimes it’s good to diversify. Thursday it announced a new wireless speaker system called the Jambox. Jambox is set to capitalize on the increasing number of multimedia-heavy mobile devices. The device will stream any audio from a Bluetooth-enabled device and take full advantage of Bluetooth version 2.1. Wireless Bluetooth speakers aren’t new, but the Jambox differentiates itself with MyTALK , a proprietary technology platform. MyTalk expands the system’s functionality with features like audio alerts for caller ID. It also works as a speakerphone. Most importantly, Jambox is a formidable little sound system. The device contains two tiny speakers capable of wide audio ranges. Jambox comes in blue, black, grey and red.
This week in gaming saw a number of major releases, but the game that has seen the most action on my console is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II . The game moves much faster than its predecessor. There is almost zero exposition, with the player stepping directly into the extremely powerful Starkiller who is capable of forcing his way through just about anything. Not the most challenging game to ever hit the shelves, but it’s still pretty gratifying to hurl massive objects at stormtroopers and force crush TIE fighters in mid-flight. Beyond that, I consider it an act of cruelty that Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas were released within a week of each other. How is a dedicated gamer possibly expected to keep up? But that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Still playing HALO: Reach ? Just getting around to Vanquish ? Holding out for Call of Duty: Black Ops ? Playing something entirely different? Tell us about it. Comments are open to: tips, critiques, (good-natured) smack talk and basically anything else related to gaming.