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GhostCodes makes it easy to discover new Snapchat users [Video]

Snapchat is insanely popular with the younger demographic, and it flourishes in areas like schools, where there is a community of individuals using the app who see each other face to face.

One of Snapchat’s greatest weaknesses, though, is that it lacks good discovery tools built inside the app. It’s why I believe that its growth, although impressive, has been bridled in some instances. It’s why an app like GhostCodes can provide a valuable bridge to user discovery on the platform. more…

Filed under: Apps Tagged: App Store app, discovery, Snapchat, social media, video

Which Training Institute to Choose For PMI®-ACP Agile Certification

Which Training Institute to Choose For PMI-ACP Agile Certification

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Anyone can get a PMI®-ACP Agile Certification but not from any institution. Unless an education provider has been reviewed and approved by the Project Management Institute (PMI), they cannot provide credible project management training. Registration under PMI means that the educator abides by established criteria for quality assurance. This is a control that protects learners from getting low quality education that does not prepare them adequately for the needs of the market.

The Certification Process

Membership of PMI

While it is possible to get your PMI®-ACP Agile Certification without being a member of PMI, membership offers benefits such as lower fees for exams. It is therefore not mandatory for project managers to be members of PMI during their course of the career. If a learner chooses to not be a member, they will be required to take the PMI®-ACP exam preparation course which involves 21 contact hours. There is no set timeline for finishing this training so it is up to the learner to manage their training provided they have 21 hours at the end of that period. For members of PMI, the exam prep course is part of the benefits of being a member and assistance will be offered on how to cover that requirement effectively.

The Exam Process

The application to be a member needs to go under a review period of 3 to 5 days after which an acceptance or reject notification will be sent. It is only after an approval notice that the exam fee will be paid and scheduled. Unlike the preparation period, there is a time frame during which the exam should be taken. During the period of one year after approval for taking the exam has been granted, a learner may attempt the exams for up to 3 times. Choosing an exam center should be doe according to the preferences and convenience of the learner and this is important because it avoids issues of delay and missed exams.

The PMI-ACP Exam comprises of 120 questions that should be completed within a period of 3 hours. This paper is supposed to test the learner’s knowledge of Agile Tools & Techniques as well as Agile Knowledge & Skills. Passing this exam means that you have certification valid for three years but can be renewed after this time elapses.

Agile Certification Requirements

To be eligible for the PMI®-ACP Agile Certification, candidates must have general project experience and a total of 2000 hours experience on project teams which must have been within the last 5 years at the time of application. Having an active PMP® or PgMP® certification helps to fulfill this requirement.

The post Which Training Institute to Choose For PMI®-ACP Agile Certification appeared first on Project-Management.com.

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iPhone 7: Specs & features expected for Apple’s next flagship

A new dual-camera system, storage and RAM upgrades, a tweaked physical design, and possibly the Smart Connector that debuted on Apple’s iPad Pro line. Those are just a few of the upgrades possibly expected for Apple’s next flagship iPhone lineup, not to mention a lot of discussion over what it has planned for its bundled headphones now that it’s expected to ditch the old 3.5mm headphone jack with iPhone 7. Here’s what we know so far.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: 5.5-inch model, Apple, Dual-Camera, features, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 plus, OIS, specs

Adonit launches new $79 Pixel stylus as worthy competitor to Apple Pencil, compatible with iPhone and iPad

The stylus market was shaken up last fall with Apple’s first-party entrance into the race with the Apple Pencil, which works in concert with special sensors in the iPad Pro display for pixel-accurate recognition. This left third-party stylus accessory manufacturers in a quandary — how can they compete with the officially-endorsed Apple Pencil? The Pixel stylus is the answer from Adonit, on sale today for $79.99. Not only is Adonit’s stylus $20 cheaper than Apple’s, it has a huge advantage in terms of iOS device compatibility.

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: Adonit, Apple Pencil, iPad Pro, stylus

9to5Toys Lunch Break: Panasonic 50″ 4K UHDTV $500, mophie 32GB Space Pack $40, Bose SoundLink Mini II $179, more

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

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Add a 50-inch Panasonic 4K Smart LED Ultra HDTV to your home today for $500 shipped, 65-inch $1,000, more

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Get more space and 2X the power with the mophie 32GB Space Pack for iPhone 5/s/SE: $40 shipped (Reg. $110)

Boost your iPhone’s battery w/ mophie’s juice pack reserve case for $40 Prime shipped (Reg. $60)

bose-soundlink-mini-ii

Many acclaimed Bose speakers & headphones now on sale, SoundLink Mini II $179 shipped (Reg. $199)

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Here’s your chance to finally save on SONOS, all speakers now come w/ a free gift card

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WWE 2K on iOS and Android now on sale for just $1 (Reg. $8)

KAMI paper puzzle game goes free on iOS for the very first time today (Reg. $2)

App Store Free App of the Week: Pull My Tongue goes free for the first time ($1 value)

Transistor action-RPG for iOS once again matching its lowest price yet: $3 (Reg. $10)

Awesome Note 2 task/calendar app for iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad: $2 (Reg. $4)

dji-phantom-4-9to5toys

Review: We flew DJI’s impressive Phantom 4 drone towards a wall at 20MPH and nothing happened

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

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Add 5TB of external storage to your Mac, PC or Xbox One: Seagate USB 3.0 Expansion Hard Drive $110 (Reg. $130+)

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

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Green Deals: Philips Hue Lux A19 LED Light Starter Kit $40, more

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Treat yourself w/ all-time low prices on Bowers & Wilkins headphones, speakers

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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Jaybird’s new Freedom Bluetooth earbuds have an Apple-inspired metal design

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 32GB Space Pack, 5TB, 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Best Buy, bose headphones, Bose speakers, Daily Deals, djay 2, free apps, Gold Box, Mophie, SoundLink Mini II, video games, WWE 2K

Parallels Access 3.1 adds native iPad Pro resolution, Apple Pencil support, 3D Touch features, more

You may be familiar with Parallels for its virtual machine software that lets you run Windows alongside OS X on a Mac, but the company also offers a service and mobile app called Parallels Access that lets you remote into your Mac and Windows VM from other devices. Parallels Access for iOS is updating to version 3.1 today with enhancements for Apple’s latest iPhones and iPads plus new features for all users.

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Filed under: Apps Tagged: Parallels

Pebble 2 + Time 2 w/ built-in HR monitors & bigger screen, all-new 3G wearable Core unveiled

Pebble has just unveiled its latest smartwatches, and has done so in the most Pebble-like way possible, by launching a new Kickstarter project. The smartwatch maker has returned to the platform it used so successfully with the original Pebble, and the following iterations, with a true second generation Pebble and a second generation Pebble Time along with an all-new 3G wearable called the Pebble Core.

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Filed under: Tech Industry Tagged: Accessories, Kickstarter, Pebble 2, Pebble Time 2, smartwatches

Opinion: What can we expect from the 2016 MacBook Pro, and will it be worth the wait?

Apple has kept us waiting a long time for a new MacBook Pro. It’s been more than a year since the last update, and that was a minor one. It added Force Touch to the trackpad, provided faster flash storage, an extra hour of battery-life and faster graphics. All fine as a refresh, but nothing to get too excited about.

The latest report suggests that we’re now going to have to wait until Q4 this year before a new model is released. Unsurprisingly, that report points to a next-generation MacBook Pro with a thinner and lighter design, with cues taken from the 12-inch MacBook. More power-efficient processors should allow a thinner casing without sacrificing battery-life.

But it also suggests a couple of new features: Touch ID, and a touch-sensitive replacement for the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. At first glance, Touch ID might sound welcome but no big deal, and the touchscreen a bit gimmicky, but – executed properly – I think they could make a huge difference to the usability of the machine …

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Filed under: Mac, Opinion

Twitter announces mentions and media will soon stop counting towards 140 character limit, adding ability to self retweet

After a few months of speculation, Twitter has officially announced its plans to extend the length of tweets by no longer counting mentions and media attachments towards the 140 character limit as well as some new announcements including the ability to retweet yourself and the removal of the ‘.@’ convention to simplify the service. Twitter will roll all of these updates in the coming months.

The headline change is that Twitter handles (@mention), embedded photos, videos and other media attachments will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. This will allow users to fit more content into every tweet as metadata will not use up valuable characters.

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Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: 140 characters, character limit, mentions, personal, self retweets, Twitter

iOS 9 brings Spotlight Suggestions for search to 7 more regions

A redesigned Spotlight search screen is one of the key features in iOS 9, and Spotlight Suggestions powers this space with content from the App Store and iTunes, news sites, local businesses, and much more. Localization is key in providing a useful experience with Spotlight Suggestions, however, so the feature isn’t on by default for all regions and languages.

Apple has added support for seven more regions and languages now, though, bringing the total number of supported locations to 26. These are the latest regions to gain Spotlight Suggestions support:

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Filed under: iOS Tagged: iOS 9

Review: OtterBox uniVERSE case integrates popular accessories as modular components

For the last week or so I’ve been playing with a new OtterBox product called the uniVERSE case. It’s a modular system that allows users to swap in and out various accessories that are made to slickly mount to the case.

The company has partnered with makers of various smartphone products— camera lenses, speakers, tripods, card readers, battery packs, etc— and each has made a module that easily attaches to the new uniVERSE case.

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Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: case, iPhone, lightning drive, modular, Olloclip, OtterBox, PolarPro, SanDisk, Seek Thermal, Universe

The UE Roll 2 is this summer’s best Bluetooth speaker, but we don’t recommend you buy it

The Ultimate Ears (UE) division of Logitech has been making some of the best Bluetooth speakers out there for quite some time. When I reviewed the waterproof UE Roll last year, it became the no-brainer summer music purchase, especially as 9to5toys caught it dipping down to $50 a few times in the past few weeks.

It is super-portable, mostly flat, rugged and so waterproof you can bring it into a pool with its own little floatie. This is the speaker I take with me on most trips because it is small in the backpack yet still sounds great, pairs easily with multiple devices and even has iOS/Android apps for creating alarms and checking battery. Obviously if you are throwing a house/pool party, you’ll want something more substantial like UE Boom and Megaboom.

Today UE upgraded the Roll with 15% better sound and 100-ft wireless range (up from 66-ft) along with some new color/designs (pictured above). Here’s the full official specs update …

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Filed under: iOS Devices

10 of the Best Brands on Twitter (And Why They’re So Successful)

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When it was first created, Twitter was designed mostly for individuals. It was a place for people to share succinct versions of their thoughts and ideas with the world.

As it grew in popularity, brands jumped on board and began using the platform to communicate with consumers. Over the past decade, it’s become a go-to platform for engaging with fans and increasing brand exposure.

Brands that tweet out quality content tend to see a lot of success on Twitter. But what exactly does quality brand content on Twitter look like?

Below is a list of 10 brands — even those in seemingly “boring” industries — that are consistently tweeting out great content. (And to learn more about how to succeed on Twitter, download our introductory guide to Twitter for business.)

10 of the Best Brands on Twitter

1) JetBlue

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When it comes to brands who “do it all” Twitter, JetBlue takes the cake. From their Twitter description (below) to their team of dedicated customer service professionals that answers every single question tweeted their way, the folks at JetBlue consistently go above and beyond to delight customers on Twitter.

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I’ll never forget what their Manager of Customer Commitment Laurie Meacham told me in an interview back in 2014:

We’re all about people, and being on social media is just a natural extension of that. It’s no different than any other part of the airline.”

As a consumer, when you tweet at a company that has over 16,000 employees, you may not expect a response very quickly (if at all). But JetBlue is on another level — and they’ve done a fantastic job differentiating themselves on Twitter by finding clever ways to exceed our expectations.

Just take a look at their reply tweets to see what I mean — and read this blog post for a deeper dive into JetBlue’s unique Twitter strategy.

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2) Innocent Drinks

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We’ve long admired Innocent Drinks for their consistently lovable branding. While they may be a smoothie and juice brand, they stay far away from pushily promoting their products.

In fact, most of their social media posts aren’t about smoothies or drinks at all. Instead, they use social media to foster their silly, fun, clever, and creative brand personality.

“We want to tell people about us in the most engaging way we can,” said Community Manager Helena Langdon told Audiense in an interview. “It’s our goal to make our pages a place on social media where people want to visit and enjoy seeing in their timelines, then people won’t mind when we try to sell them drinks every now and again.”

Here’s another example:

It’s this approach to Twitter that makes them stand out from the crowd — and it certainly works for their audience. Their head of digital and communities Joe McEwan says that people really connect with their brand because they talk like human beings, without jargon or “technical mumbo jumbo.”

“It helped to set us apart,” he said, “and it got people talking about us. It’s completely ingrained in the company that we should look to talk to people wherever they might be.”

3) Major League Baseball (MLB)

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The MLB (Major League Baseball) is a complex system of teams, players, statistics, trades, and more. Instead of housing all these activities under a single Twitter handle, they’ve done a great job segmenting different parts of the game into different Twitter handles. (And they list all their affiliated Twitter handles in their cover photos — a very nice touch.)

Their @MLBStatOfTheDay handle, for example, is for the statistics nerds out there, pairing interesting statistics with relevant video clips.

Meanwhile, @MLBReplays tweets each challenge a coach makes against an umpire’s call and its result. @MLBRosterMoves, sponsored by moving company Penske, sends a tweet every time a player is added or removed from a team’s roster.

My favorite MLB Twitter account, though, is @MLBGIFs. The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: Each tweet features a GIF paired with a funny one-liner. These GIFs capture some of the cool, funny, and weird moments that take place during a baseball game — everything from diving catches to dancing fans to high-fiving players.

Here are two examples:

And:

GIFs are shareable, relatable, and delightful — and MLB really nailed it by creating a separate Twitter handle to embrace them. (Want to learn how to create your own animated GIFs in Photoshop? Read this blog post for a tutorial.)

4) DiGiorno Pizza

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DiGiorno Pizza is one of the funniest (and definitely one of the strangest) brands to follow on Twitter. Their tweets are usually about pizza, but not in the uber-promotional way you’d expect.

For example, do you remember that time in 2013 when DiGiorno Pizza live-tweeted NBC’s The Sound of Music and broke the internet? Here, let me jog your memory:

The entire thing was weird and hilarious. It was also a great example of a brand hopping on a popular hashtag (in this case, #TheSoundofMusicLive) to chime in on the already-popular conversation. In the two hours of live-tweeting, the company tweeted 38 times, garnered over 44 million social impressions for that week, and picked up over 4,000 new followers.

Most of their tweets are funny odes to pizza — and some of them still have that same crazy, erratic voice they used in the live-tweeting, which’ll often leave you totally confused and laughing hysterically all at the same time. 

5) General Electric

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What General Electric sells (appliances, lighting, electronics, etc.) doesn’t have nearly as broad of an appeal as pizza, but that doesn’t mean their tweets have to be unappealing.

GE lives in the technology and innovation space — a space where far too many companies resort to using Twitter simply to promote themselves and their content. 

That’s where GE differentiates itself in the tech space on Twitter. They’ve found a perfect balance of thought leadership and authenticity. They use Twitter to teach their followers what they’re doing; for example, they’re fantastic at breaking down the complex concepts and terminology they work with into simple language.

Below, they showcased one of their sports research studies by handpicking one of the coolest, most accessible parts of their research and showcasing it in an engaging way:

We also love that they don’t take themselves too seriously on Twitter. Instead of marketing themselves as a big, inaccessible tech company, they’re great at keeping their Twitter content human and relatable.

6) Charmin

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The social media marketers behind Charmin’s Twitter account are masters of social engagement. First of all, their tweets always feature their fun, lighthearted, and toilet humor-centric brand voice. In 2014, TIME named them “the sassiest brand on Twitter.”

In addition to tweeting out fun content, they’re constantly using Twitter to ask their followers to answer questions, respond to folks who tweet at them, and jump in on trending hashtags — like the #DontWorryBoutAThingCuz hashtag below.

They’ve also created a number of successful hashtags that encourage their followers to engage with them on Twitter. Their most famous is #TweetFromTheSeat, in which followers can send tweets while sitting on the toilet. The hashtag earned them a Shorty Award in 2014 — and we love the description they included in their entry:

40% of young adults admit to using social media in the bathroom (and those are just the people who admit to it). At our core, Charmin is all about giving people a better bathroom experience and it is important to us that this translates to how we engage with consumers on Twitter. And of course, we love potty humor.”

Another hashtag they use to engage with fans and followers is #CharminAsks. Here’s a fun example:

7) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

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Like the MLB, the marketing team at MIT runs a number of different Twitter accounts. Their main @MIT feed is great — in fact, it was #1 on our list of the best universities on Twitter for delivering diverse content, from research studies to nerdy anecdotes, that is catered to their niche audience.

But their other accounts are great too. Specifically, they’ve created Twitter handles for each of their target personas: @FYEatMIT for first-year students, @MISTIatMIT for matching MIT undergraduates with internship, teaching, and research opportunities, @MITGradStudents for (you guessed it) graduate students, and more.

Along with tweeting out helpful content, the Twitter descriptions they’ve written for each handle make it very clear what each Twitter account is all about. Here are three examples from the three handles I mentioned above (and here are 38 more examples of great Twitter bios for more inspiration).

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8) LinkedIn

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While JetBlue uses their main @JetBlue Twitter account to handle customer service, LinkedIn actually uses a separate account called @LinkedInHelp. The folks at LinkedIn don’t use this account in the traditional sense, and its goals certainly don’t revolve around gaining new followers. Instead, the purpose of the account is to give LinkedIn users an easy way get their questions answered quickly through Twitter.

If you scroll through that account’s main Twitter feed, you’ll see it’s basically all retweets of praise and thank-yous from delighted customers — which is great social proof for anyone who finds themself on the page and wondering whether they’re actually responsive.

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The LinkedIn Help page is controlled by an extremely responsive support and communications team, who is always offering help to those who seek it. Since the questions are being answered on Twitter, this can be a valuable resource for those to see answers to similar questions they may have.

LinkedIn isn’t the only brand with dedicated customer service and support Twitter handles. Examples from other brands include @NikeSupport from Nike, @AskTarget from Target, and @HubSpotSupport from HubSpot.

9) Maersk Line

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Think you can’t have a cool Twitter account just because your industry is “boring”? When you see Maersk Line’s Twitter page, you might change your mind. Let’s be honest: Container shipping isn’t the sexiest of industries. And yet, their social media team has found a way to find the beauty therein.

How? The tweets from Maersk Line are centered around their products at work. For the most part, this means gorgeous photos. It all starts with their beautiful cover photo, which plays with light and reflections at sunset. (Here are 20 more examples of great Twitter cover photos from brands for more inspiration.)

Most of their tweets include images as well — a great move for engagement, as Buffer reported that tweets with images received 150% more retweets than tweets without images for its user base.

In addition to photos, they pair links to their own reports with graphics to make the less “sexy” tweets more engaging and more noticeable in the Twitter feed.

To easily make similar images for your own Twitter feed, download these 100 customizable social media image templates in PowerPoint.

10) Forrester

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Forrester, a research company known for their innovative reports and analyses aimed at global business and technology leaders, is another company that makes an art out of cramming a lot of meaning into 140 characters.

Most of their tweets include cool information or statistics from their studies that are interesting to their target followers. They do a great job of tweeting out an interesting statistic or tidbit, including a relevant image that makes that piece of information stick out in the feed, and then link to the larger study. Folks scrolling through their feed who find that information interesting might be enticed to learn more by clicking the link.

What are your favorite brands on Twitter? Share with us in the comments. 

free guide: how to get twitter followers

Apple, Microsoft & Google own 23% of all U.S. corporate cash outside finance sector – Moody’s

Apple famously sits on a huge stockpile of cash – $215B at the latest count – but a new report from corporate credit rating agency Moody’s puts the number into perspective. It shows that if you exclude banking & finance, a sector that sits on a lot of cash by definition, just three companies hold 23% of all the corporate cash in the USA: Apple, Microsoft and Google.

GeekWire notes that this is the first time that all five of the top spots have been held by tech companies, with Apple holding twice as much as Microsoft and three times as much as Google …

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Filed under: AAPL Company