Contributing to the uptick in mobile users are the Facebook mobile apps available across a variety of carriers and mobile devices, enhanced Facebook mobile-ready Web pages (m.facebook.com, for example) and the ability for users to post to Facebook via SMS (including Facebook’s new link-shrinking capability with FB.ME). Should Facebook start providing analytics to users with their URL-shortening service, you might see even more mobile activity.

For businesses, this news puts even greater importance on marketing within the world’s largest social network. Mobile is a tricky proposition. But if you can merge mobile with social - and with Facebook, you can - you have a win-win situation. You gain access to the social sphere, as well as mobile users. Consider this when updating Facebook Pages for your business.

To target the Facebook mobile user, keep updates relatively brief and include mobile-friendly calls-to-action, such as brief blog posts, links to maps, and links to specific, mobile-friendly Web pages. Want users to call your business? Link to an offer on a landing page with a highly visible phone number. Many devices will automatically enable click-to-call. Brick and mortar businesses have a great opportunity here to drive foot traffic by providing instant coupons through Facebook updates, for example.

Source: Web Site Magazine

Some of the packaging changes include: covering energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, waste creation and water use.

• Oscar Mayer Deli Creations packaging in the U.S. was redesigned with 30 percent less paperboard, making it smaller and taking up less shelf space. The change is expected to cut out 1.2 million pounds of paperboard a year.
• The packaging for Oreo Cakesters was reduced by 12 percent and now uses 100 percent recycled paperboard.
• Packaging layers were removed from Milka chocolate bars in Europe (a change that will also be used in Latin America), cutting the product’s weight by 60 percent less weight and eliminating 5.7 million pounds of packaging a year.
• A redesign of Kraft salad dressing bottles in Australia is expected to reduce their packaging by 100,000 pounds of plastic a year.
• A redesign to the zipper on Kraft Natural Cheese bags has eliminated more than 1 million pounds of material a year.

In addition to reducing materials, Kraft has chosen different material for some products. In North America, the steel coffee cans for Maxwell House, Yuban and Nabob have been replaced with composite paperboard, which weights 30 percent less, contains 50 percent recycled content and reduces packaging needs by 8.5 million pounds a year. Kenco coffee in the U.K. is now being sold in refill bags, which use 97 percent less packaging by weight than previous glass jars.

Images courtesy Kraft Foods
Source: Greener Design

The third annual State of Green Business report, published today, explores in-depth the data behind the growth of green business, to find out whether and how companies are moving the needle toward sustainability.

“The good news is that green business didn’t go away during this recession,” GreenBiz.com executive editor Joel Makower said during a press conference this morning. “What makes this recession notable over recessions from the last 20 years, other than the scale of it, is that the green business professionals were not the first ones to be thrown overboard.”

This trend shows that business leaders are taking the environmental performance of their firms as seriously as the economic performance. In a survey of more than 2,700 members of the GreenBiz Intelligence Panel, about 80 percent of the respondents said that their companies would spend the same or more money on environment, health and safety as they did in the last year.

The report, launched today as a precursor to two State of Green Business Forums — one happening in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 4, and one happening in Chicago on Tuesday, Feb. 9 — shows that environmental improvements and innovations became a means of surviving lean times, and being more competitive once things rebound.

Read the entire article at GreenBiz.com

Essentially, Jobs argues that netbooks bring nothing new to the table.

That might be true, but neither does the iPad. Essentially, the iPad is a really big iPod Touch. It measures .5 inches thick, has a 9.7 inch display and weighs in at 1.5 pounds.

Highs
Like everything Apple, the user interface is slick, seamless and fluid. During the demonstration, the e-reader (dubbed iBooks, of course) looks like a step way above the Kindle - books are in color and videos can play right inside the book pages. Same goes for newspapers. That was demonstrated by viewing The New York Times - an interesting choice, as NYT announced they will start to charge for content. Coincidence?

Considerable time during the presentation was spent on an some unlikely flagship apps - iWork. All of the standard features were present with document creation, spreadsheets, data import, etc. Impressively, each iWork app is priced at just $9.99. That’s nice, if you want to work in the insulated world of iWork. Of course, you could always navigate over to Google Docs instead.

Video, of course, is second-to-none on the iPad, as is the gaming experience.

iPhone apps will run on the iPad (or at least most of them) but there will also be standalone iPad apps - a potential boon to developers, who can now get started with a SDK for the iPad.

Data plans start at $14.99 for 250 MB per month or $29.99 for unlimited data, with no contracts. And, all 3G models are unlocked.

Pricing. Many people are going to get really excited that the iPad is available for just $499. However, that’s a version with WiFi only, and just 16GB of storage. To get 3G (and what’s the point of this thing without a fast connection), you’re looking at a minimum of $629. Want to treat this thing like a working computer and not just a browsing device? You’ll need more storage … 64GB for $829. A full price breakdown can be found below.

The iPad is a beautiful, intuitive, convenient way to surf the Web. What’s more, the iPad naturally will have some amazing apps. iPhone apps will run on the iPad (or at least, most of them) but there will also be standalone iPad apps - a potential boon to developers, who can now get started with a SDK for the iPad. But the integration (or lack thereof) of all these killer apps might also be the iPad’s biggest downfall.

Lows
Astoundingly, there was no mention of multitasking with apps and browsing with the iPad - one of the biggest complaints users have with the iPhone. Does this mean I can’t stream music while reading the morning New York Times that I just paid for?

No Flash. Just like another iPhone shortcoming, the iPad has problems with Flash.

AT&T. Yep, the iPad is tied to AT&T - yet another iPhone shortcoming. It’s one thing to drop a phone call or not be able to get the latest sports scores while traveling. What happens when you’re trying to get some real work done and you lose your connection? The whole beautiful interface is next to useless until AT&T bulks up their 3G coverage.

There’s no camera. Wouldn’t it be nice to iChat with your friend in Itasca about the iBook you just read on your new iPad?

There’s no denying that this device is cool. But “magical” as Jobs suggests? In the end, it looks like the iPad is really just a large iPod Touch - look no further than the price as your first clue. But it does have a bigger keyboard. Which is nice.

Source: Website Magazine

Go organic and local. Serve beer from your local microbrewery. It’s a great conversation piece, Mersel says. Help guests make healthier choices by serving some vegetarian “junk food,” such as meat-free chili or vegan cookies.

Avoid paper products. Use real dishes, glassware and utensils. Put recycling bins in obvious places. “Do a little homework to find out what you can and cannot recycle,” Davis says. Try Earth911.com for tips. Ask guests to bring containers from home for leftovers, or find a homeless shelter or soup kitchen that accepts food donations.

Source: USA Weekend

For Web professionals, this is something worth noting. iPhones are slick, but the raw numbers show that the “pedestrian” BlackBerry is much more widely used. This has plenty to do with the number of businesses and employees using BlackBerrys. That means when planning your mobile strategy for 2010, don’t get hung up on the iPhone. Make sure your mobile marketing is aimed across all available mobile devices and that your campaigns will render on every screen, not just the iPhone. For example, perhaps a big-budget app for the iPhone can wait, instead focusing on mobile campaigns like SMS coupons or something as simple as email geared toward reading on a mobile device. After all, the smartphone (and BlackBerry’s dominance) is still centered around communication and connectivity.

The coming release of Google’s phone should make these numbers even more interesting later in 2010. ComScore reports that 17 percent of consumers plan to buy an Android-supported smartphone in the next three months. With the abundance of devices capable of running Android, this is furtner proof that the iPhone should not be the sole, or even majority focus of mobile marketing.

In light of all of this is a very interesting bit of information for mobile Web developers. iPhone users and Android users interact with mobile media at a  stronger clip (94 and 92 percent, respectively) than average smartphone users, including BlackBerry (80 percent).

This is going to be a big year for mobile. Keep an eye out for data like this to ensure you are aiming at the largest possible target.

Source: Website Magazine