Vita Store

Applications can be downloaded via the Vita store, under the Applications tab.

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If 15 games available at launch for PlayStation Vita wasn’t entertaining enough, early adopters of the game system are in for a treat. Free Twitter, Flickr and Netflix apps are now available for download at the PlayStation Store.

The influx of social media apps brings this portable gaming system into tablet territory. The 5-inch OLED screen really steals the show and apps are easy to access with the impressive touchscreen. Vita gamers will have to wait longer for Facebook or Foursquare apps to surface.

The Sony Twitter application is LiveTweet, built specifically for the Vita. It works as well as any other Twitter clients. Twitter streams run on the middle-right of the screen, with icons for mentions, lists and direct messages available next to it. The app also allows you to attach pictures taken from your Vita’s camera to your tweets.

The Netflix application looks very similar to other mobile incarnations. It allows you to browse movies and access your instant queue. Vita users can also fast-forward and rewind with the analog stick. Simply, pause with the X button. Note: The movies will look bright on the system’s OLED, but drain battery significantly.

Photography fans will be able to view Flickr pictures on a beautiful interface that allows you to view photos in full screen. The Vita’s huge screen makes photo viewing, commenting and tagging a breeze.

The applications are accessible in the PS Vita store, under the “Applications” header on the left menu. The Playstation Vita connects to the system’s app store over WiFi and 3G networks. The wifi-only model is $249.99 and the 3G/wifi-capable model is $299.99.

Tell us in the comments what you think of the social media apps on the PlayStation Vita mobile gaming system? Do these apps enhance your gaming gadget experience?

More About: Facebook, flickr, netflix, PlayStation Vita, PS Vita, sony, Twitter, Vita

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"Successful College Senior" Meme

He’s back. DRINK! The college student — whose 2007 photo of himself as a freshman catapulted into meme territory last year — has made an unexpected and triumphant return to web stardom as a senior this week.

The new image immediately caught the attention of Reddit users, who cleverly wasted no time turning it into a "Successful College Senior" meme. A "Lazy College Senior" meme already exists.

Click here to view this gallery.

He’s back. DRINK! The college student — whose 2007 photo of himself as a freshman catapulted into meme territory last year — has made an unexpected and triumphant return to web stardom as a senior this week.

Five years ago, a photograph captured University of New Hampshire student Griffin Kiritsy as a seemingly happy-go-lucky freshman. In mid-2011, the image got the familiar white-text-over-photo meme treatment on Quickmeme: “Hangs 20 beer signs in dorm. Only ever tasted Miller Lite.” The “College Freshman” meme has since been whipped into countless variations to poke fun at all things relating to first-year students.

“The worst part is that 90 percent of those memes don’t apply to me,” Kiritsy recently told his school’s student newspaper, The New Hampshire.

The newspaper’s story delved into the history of the original photo and featured a new picture of Kiritsy striking the same pose but this time as a senior.

The new image immediately caught the attention of Reddit users, who cleverly wasted no time turning it into a “Successful College Senior” meme (see gallery above). A “Lazy College Senior” meme already exists.

Memes involving college humor tend to resonate universally as students and alums across the globe can easily relate to the content. This month alone, college-specific memes are spreading at an unusually rapid pace on social channels, particularly on Facebook where students are creating Facebook groups just to showcase their schools’ memes.

“People feel plugged in to this production of laughs based off school culture,” Northwestern University student Gabe Bergado recently told Mashable.

Can you create a funnier “Successful College Senior” meme than the ones in our gallery? Take a stab at making your own at Quickmeme and share a link to yours in the comments below.

More About: college, humor, memes, reddit, trending

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Irony, thy name is patent law. Microsoft filed a complaint with the European Commission against Motorola for aggressively asserting its patents, charging that Motorola ignored commitments it made to support industry standards. The filing comes shortly after Apple registered a similar complaint.

In a post titled “Google: Please Don’t Kill Video on the Web,” Microsoft says Motorola (which Google is in the process of acquiring) has broken its promise on the contribution it made to developing standards for streaming video and connecting devices to the Internet via Wi-Fi. The post alleges that Motorola is making unfair demands for compensation on the patents it holds for technologies like H.264, a standard video format.

In a searing example, Microsoft says Motorola demands $22.50 on any $1,000 Windows laptop sold to satisfy its 50 patents on H.264. To use the standard at all, Microsoft says, it must satisfy 2,300 other patents, which costs the company a grand total of two cents. Microsoft says Motorola’s demands not even “remotely close” to reasonable, and it’s hard to disagree.

Patent expert Florian Mueller of Foss Patents definitely appears to agree with Microsoft’s point of view, describing Motorola’s behavior as “FRAND abuse terrorism,” calling out Samsung on behaving similarly. (FRAND stands for fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory.)

“I can see what Apple and Microsoft are complaining about,” Mueller wrote in a blog post. “If every owner of standard-essential patents behaved like Motorola, this industry would be in chaos, and grind to a halt.”

There’s a lot of noise over this issue since the patents in question are key to industry standards, affecting potentially thousands of products and some of the fundamental abilities of those products (like accessing the Internet). That’s why Microsoft says Motorola broke a promise: that it would make its patents available on reasonable terms — basically, that it wouldn’t be jerk about them.

That might sound more than a little ironic when you factor in that Microsoft holds many patents on the technology behind Android, and could be making as much as a $1 billion on all those phones Google sells every year.

Google certainly sees the irony, with a spokesperson telling Mashable that “Microsoft’s complaint is just another example of their attempts to use the regulatory process to attack competitors. It’s particularly ironic given their track record in this area and collaboration with patent trolls.”

Regardless, Mueller says he’s confident the European Commission will make clear to Motorola that its attempts to cash in on its standards patents won’t succeed: “As a European consumer, I don’t want to be held hostage by companies that use industry standards as a nuclear weapon and restrict choice,” he wrote.

What do you think? Is Motorola behaving worse than others who have asserted intellectual property rights? Or is this just business as usual for patent law? Let us know in the comments.

More About: apple, Google, microsoft, Motorola, patents

Apple has faced increased criticism concerning the working conditions within its factories. Fair-labor and human-rights groups have petitioned Apple to change its policies. And much of the credit for that goes to monologuist Mike Daisey.

In early January, the radio program This American Life aired an episode titled “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.” The episode took a closer look at the issue, based on an excerpt from Daisey’s one-man show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. In the show, Daisey, a lifelong Apple fan, describes traveling to China to see the conditions of the Foxconn factory for himself.

Mashable spoke with Daisey this afternoon about his thoughts on the Nightline report, the open-sourcing of his play and his new approach to using technology.

About Nightline

As Daisey made clear on his personal blog, he believes the Nightline story itself was an “inherently positive” development because it is bringing greater attention to a very important subject. Still, Daisey does have a few issues with the report.

The first issue is one of bias. As Nightline acknowledged in the segment, ABC News is owned by the Disney Corporation and its CEO, Bob Iger, is a member of Apple’s Board of Directors. Moreover, the Steve Jobs Trust is Disney’s largest shareholder. (In the interests of full disclosure, Mashable has a syndication partnership with ABC News.)

While Daisey wasn’t implying that ABC News or Nightline breached journalistic ethics in creating the report — and he specifically reiterated that — he does question why the news organization was granted access to the story in the first place.

Meanwhile, Daisey has major problems with how the Fair Labor Association (FLA) is performing its audits on Apple factories. Daisey says he has been unable to find anyone associated with any labor organization who would go on the record to say that the audit is being performed in a “correct” or “typical” way.

The FLA denies that it is doing anything to whitewash the results of its audit, but Daisey is skeptical. Ultimately, he believes that real change will not be achieved until true NGOs that are not associated with corporations or governments can start setting the standards and overseeing these labor audits. Beyond that, the corporations themselves will need to be willing to make changes, even if it means giving up profit margins.

Why Just Apple?

Of course, Apple isn’t the only company that uses Chinese suppliers and factories to make its products. Foxconn is the world’s largest maker of electronic components. The company’s major customers include not just Apple but Amazon, Sony, IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Asus, Samsung, Panasonic, Motorola, Nintendo, Microsoft, Vizio, Nokia and Intel.

I asked Daisey about the focus on Apple and whether focusing on just one company obscured the issue.

As the most valuable technology company, “Apple is the biggest fish,” he responded. “Since the biggest fish was caught, of course it’s going to be the primary target.”

Moreover, Daisey believes that Apple holds more responsibility than many others.

Labor and factory conditions, he says, “are an industry-wide problem but [they] are also Apple-specific.” By that, he means that because of how tightly Apple controls its supply chain — a fact that has been a point of honor for the company — and because its profit margins are so much higher than the industry average, Apple is a bigger part of the problem.

To support his claim, Daisey cited a Bloomberg report that compares Apple’s profit margins to those of Foxconn. Over the last five years, Bloomberg‘s data shows that Apple’s margin has more than doubled — while those at one of Foxconn’s Taiwanese plants have shrunk.

Open-Sourcing a Monologue

As a “monologuist,” Daisey does not work from a script. For This American Life, Daisey adapted his show to fit for radio. Still, the nature of the topic and the public interest in his work convinced him to put together a narrative and outline that others can access, disseminate and use.

Earlier this week Daisey did just that by releasing The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs in an open-source format that anyone can download.

In the first 24 hours, Daisey says the script has been downloaded about 27,000 times. That’s an incredible number in and of itself, but it’s especially compelling because the audience has been largely comprised of artists, playwrights and others involved in the theater.

Daisey will continue to perform his show across the country but now others can create their own interpretations and presentations as well. Daisey hopes that by opening up his art, more can be done with it.

I asked Daisey about a filmed version of his play and he told me that it’s something he’s actively thinking about. The production and staging details need to be worked out, but it’s certainly something Daisey wants to pursue.

Learning to Enjoy Technology

I asked Daisey if he would continue to buy Apple products. The truth is, he doesn’t know. Right now Daisey is using the same equipment he used when he visited China three years ago. Once the prototypical early adopter, Daisey has changed his mindset and now continues to use technology as long as it works. “I find I enjoy my tools more,” Daisey said, about leaving the realm of the cutting-edge always-on alpha user.

Still, at some point, his phone will break. Will he get an iPhone? As an informed consumer, Daisey says he’ll evaluate his options — he might even buy used equipment — and as a realist he hasn’t committed to no longer buying Apple devices. Still, all of this work is clearly weighing on him.

Daisey holds out a bit of hope that by the time he needs to upgrade, the audits and regulations taking place in factories will have left them much better off.

More About: apple, features, Foxconn, interview, mike daisey, Nightline

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If so, you’re not alone. Some 61% of people feel addicted to the Internet and are unable to quit browsing, according to an informal survey.

Opinion pollster SodaHead surveyed 602 visitors to its site Feb. 16. about whether they experience Internet addiction, and found that many people are self-diagnosed addicts.

Women experience addiction more than men, with 64% of women compared with 55% of men reporting the symptoms of addiction.

Interestingly, respondents addicted to other behaviors were less likely to be addicted to the Internet. Only 48% of smokers, compared with 65% of non-smokers, experience addiction. The margin between drinkers and non-drinkers was narrower, with 57% of drinkers and 64% of non-drinkers describing themselves as Internet addicts.

Among respondents who felt addicted, teenagers between 13 and 17 were worst off, with 73% reporting addiction. As respondents get older, they reported subsequently less addiction, with the exception of those 65 and over, who feel more addicted than their counterparts between 45 and 64.

The poll found that the Internet users who spend the most time online were the least likely to be Internet addicts. Those between 45 and 54, on average, spend the most time each week online, reporting almost 40 hours of browsing each week. Teens, who feel the most addicted spend the least amount of time online, reporting only 22.3 hours per week of use.

Do you consider yourself an Internet addict? How many hours do you spend online each week? Let us know in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, alex-mit

More About: Internet addiction

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The Attorney General of California, Kamala D. Harris, announced Wednesday a deal with Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Research in Motion; the companies agreed to strengthen privacy protection for users that download third-party apps to smartphones and tablet devices.

In the deal, the companies said they would require app developers to clearly spell out what data their apps can access and what the app or company does with that data. The deal also makes app store custodians such as Apple and Google, who run the App Store and Android Market, set up a way for users to report apps that don’t provide a clear-cut explanation of their privacy policies.

According to a statement from Attorney General Harris’ office, if an app developer doesn’t meet these new privacy-policy requirements, they could be charged with a crime under California law.

“California has a unique commitment to protecting the privacy of our residents,” said Harris. “Our constitution directly guarantees a right to privacy, and we will defend it.”

Android users are well aware that developers on the platform are required to ask them for permission before accessing their personal data, but they’re not told how or why their data is being accessed. Apple also doesn’t allow any software on its App Store that takes personal information without asking, but developers haven’t been transparent on that platform, either.

In fact, Harris’ office says, only five percent of all mobile apps offer a privacy policy. And developers across both platforms have come under fire recently for coding software that transmits users’ personal data unbeknownst to them.

That controversy managed to pique the interest of some members of Congress, who sent a letter of inquiry to Apple.

Should lawmakers intervene when the creators of popular platforms like Android and iOS may not be doing enough to protect the privacy of their users? Sound off in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL

More About: amazon, android, apple, blackberry, Google, Hewlett-Packard, iOS, microsoft, privacy, research in motion, RIM, webOS, windows phone

As Pinterest looks to turn the corner from buzz-worthy startup to mainstream social network, everyone seems to be talking about it. Most unique about it, though, is the way it inspires people to pin project-related content, be it recipes, design ideas, or wedding plans.

But is it compelling people to actually create based on what they pin?

For our latest collaboration with CNN iReport, we asked you to tell us how you’re turning pins into projects. We love social media, but we also love when online and offline experiences converge. We wanted to know how people are using Pinterest to find and organize things that give them creative inspiration – and then how they execute these projects in real life.

For those who have yet to join (the site is invite-only), Pinterest is a curatorial site that calls itself a “virtual pinboard,” which allows users to capture and organize images from the web. The still growing site has captured the zeitgeist of the social web in early 2012. It is now over 10 million members strong, and receives 12 million monthly unique visitors.

We received stories of people baking, crafting, and designing a home office. We even heard from a mother who took her two sons on a jet-powered tour of downtown Detroit.

Here is a look at some of the best ways people are using pins to create projects. You can also see the featured submissions chosen by iReport in their post.

Baby Blankets

Lissables is an active member of Pinterest and uses the site to pin items she has sewn, quilted, and crochet. Lissables said she taught herself to sew an entire baby blanket (right) by finding tutorials on the site.

Click here to view this gallery.

Are you using Pinterest to do projects but missed our call for submissions? Let us know how in the comments.

More About: ireport, pinterest

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1. Hourly Wages

Foxconn workers get paid $1.78 an hour.

Click here to view this gallery.

ABC’s behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s supply plant in Shenzhen and Chengdu confirmed a lot of what we already knew: Conditions are grueling, employees are overworked and underpaid, and living quarters are crowded. However, some of the stats revealed through Nightline’s 17-minute special surrounding hourly wages, living costs and the process that goes into making Apple devices were staggering.

Nightline anchor Bill Weir was the first reporter to be allowed into the controversial Foxconn factory following years of reports about the harsh working conditions at the facility, which creates Apple products such as the iPad, iPhone and Mac computers. Foxconn is also a supply chain provider for Nintendo, Dell, HP and Intel products.

The special, which aired on Tuesday night, revealed that Foxconn workers get paid $1.78 an hour and live in a dorm room for about $17 a month, along with seven roommates. In addition, it takes five days and 375 sets of hands to assemble an iPad, according to Nightline. Meanwhile, workers can make 300,000 cameras for the device in just two shifts.

Foxconn employees have different roles. Some work with pieces of aluminum to form the iPad’s exterior design, along with the Apple logo, working on 10,000 different iPads each hour. The Apple logo carved into the back of an iPad is made on 3,000 devices each shift. Weir said he expected most employees to be as young as 13, but noted most were in their late teens.

For more information about Foxconn’s suicide nets and working conditions, check out the gallery above.

This is not the first time Apple has been under fire for mistreatment allegations at its supply factories. In fact, the factories have been accused of mistreatment for years. Most recently, reports surfaced that some Apple workers threatened to throw themselves off of a roof in a protest of unfair treatment. Foxconn later said the dispute was solved peacefully.

According to a report by 9to5mac.com, Cook sent an email last month to Apple employees following an article published by the New York Times that detailed how factory employees in China face unsuitable conditions.

“Unfortunately, some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly,” Cook wrote. “We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us.”

He also promised Apple employees that the company will “dig deeper” and although it will likely find more issues that need to be addressed, it won’t stand still or ignore the problems in the supply chain.

Are you surprised by any of the stats in Nightline’s special? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

All images courtesy of ABC Nightline.

More About: apple, Foxconn, ipad, iphone, Mobile, smartphones, tablets

The new feature was introduced in a blog post, in which Google says the update focuses on remote collaboration and is aimed at increasing users’ productivity. Google software engineer Vadim Gerasimov describes how he now can accomplish everything he does in the office — such as check his email and edit documents — with his Android during his morning commute to the company’s Sydney office.

“We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android. We’ve brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You’ll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.”

Google highlights an updated interface optimized for mobile working. You can pinch to zoom and focus or scroll out. Text-formatting options have been added, so you can create bullet lists and use color.

Google also announced an update to the presentation editor on the Docs Blog Wednesday, making changes unveiled in October to default settings for all presentations. The most significant enhancement is the ability to add and resolve comments about specific slides and shapes.

Do you like to get work done on the go? Will Google’s Android update help you work from more places than your office? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: 10 Premium Android Apps for 10 Cents Each

1. Tetris

This game has passed the test of time over and over again, and today you can enjoy the Android-optimized puzzle for only $0.10.

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, juniorbeep

More About: android, Google, google docs

Combs, the founder and CEO of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group and hip-hop artist, says he wants to connect music makers to music lovers. It’s fitting that the TV network using social networks to reach viewers would turn to YouTube to broadcast initial plans.

The television channel will deliver music videos, live performances and music news. Social media will drive audience interaction with the network and featured artists.

“REVOLT is the first channel created entirely from the ground up in this new era of social media” Combs said in a statement. “We’re building this platform for artists to reach an extraordinary number of people in a completely different way.”

Combs has taken to Twitter in recent days to accept congratulations from fellow entertainers — and fellow Twitter heavy hitters — like Rihanna, Busta Rhymes, Ashton Kutcher and Ryan Seacrest.

Oh shit bro! You have your own channel??! #ILL #REVOLTNavy RT @iamdiddy: MUSIC IS MY LIFE #REVOLT-> Bit.ly/diddyrevolt

— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 22, 2012

@iamdiddy VERY PROUD OF U AND THE LAUNCH OF UR OWN CHANNEL BIG HOMIE!!! #REVOLT!!

— Busta Rhymes (@BusaBusss) February 22, 2012

congrats to my boy @iamdiddy on the new TV channel #Revolt!! bit.ly/diddyrevolt

— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) February 22, 2012

congrats @iamdiddy I love ur hustle

— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) February 21, 2012

He has also used the social network to clear things up about REVOLT. He stated it is “not a black network,” but rather all about music.

REVOLT TV will be one of the four new minority-owned independent networks to debut on Comcast between July 2012 and January 2014. Another big name joining Combs on television is NBA hall of famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, whose channel Aspire will deliver programs geared toward African-American families.

In the YouTube video, Combs mentioned watching MTV, HBO and BET growing up, networks now considered competition in entertainment television. An invitation has been extended to other major cable networks including Time Warner, DirectTV and Cablevision to carry the new channel.

Tell us if you will tune into REVOLT TV. Do you think it’s a smart move to mix social media with TV?

Image courtesy from Sean “Diddy” Comb’s Twitter account.

More About: Business, Media, Social Media, social networking, Twitter, Video, YouTube

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