Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

As the boss, you don't get much applause on a day-to-day basis.

In places around the world where the grid hasn't been extended, they're still figuring out ways to power their gadgets. We could learn a thing or two. Globally, there are 5.3 billion mobile phone subscribers--but according to Green Power For Mobile by The GSMA Development Fund, nearly 500 million people worldwide do not have a means of charging a mobile phone at home.

%excerpt% Read the rest here: Sit. Breathe. Be a Better Leader.

When does a performer's “endorsement” of Occupy Wall Street cross over into exploitation? Music and protest have long gone hand in blistered hand

So far, the hacker collective known as Anonymous--or those claiming the name--has failed to live up to threats made via YouTube and social media. But they have brought a lot of buzz to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

I wrote a few months ago about how cloud companies are in a unique position to make partners of their competitors, a phenomenon I call the “Frenemy Model.” I’m still holding strong to this theory, even as there have been a number of massive developments in the industry since I wrote the first piece.

The New York City company describes itself as "people-powered antivirus for bills." Personal finance security start-up BillGuard, which describes itself as "people-powered antivirus for bills," has closed $10 million in second-round financing. The New York City-based company scans credit card bills for unauthorized, wrong, or deceptive charges using a combination of algorithms, complaints posted on the Internet about scams, and feedback from users (the last bit being the "people-powered" part of the equation).

By making the facts simple to understand--and putting them in a rather prominent, poignant place--two creatives offer their skills to fight wealth disparity. As the Occupy Wall Street protests gain steam, their message is being broadcast to more people, via news stories, social media, and word of mouth.

Verizon has a new service called Facetones , a mobile app that creates and displays a video slideshow of your friends’ Facebook photos whenever a call from them comes in or you call them. The app, which syncs your phone’s contact list with your Facebook friend list, is created by Vringo , a provider of software platforms for mobile social and mobile video services

%excerpt% Continued here: 9-9-9 Could Slam Businesses

New York City's mayor laughed it up at TechStars Demo Day, claiming the Bloomberg TV show resembles the Jersey Shore and that start-ups should grow to pay "a lot of taxes." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped in front of dozens of young entrepreneurs and hundreds of investors Tuesday and joked about the Jersey Shore and taxes. This was the prelude to TechStars Demo Day in New York City, where 31 start-up founders graduating from the incubator would be presenting their ideas to would-be funders

When Glen Blickenstaff was brought on as CEO of the Iron Door Company, the business was on its last legs. Today, its one of the fastest-growing sellers of consumer goods in the country. Heres how he worked his magic.

Okay, maybe "hijack" is too strong a word--but Visual Revenue's "front page automation platform" gives media companies a scientific new tool to position their websites for the highest possible ad revenue. It's not, well, news that print advertising revenue is in free fall. Newspaper advertising peaked in 2000 , and in 2010 was down more than 50% from its highest point.

Apple's Siri is the AI poster girl for the iPhone 4S, and she's charming and clever--if limited. But based on the original tech Apple bought to make Siri work, we can say that in 2012 she'll charm your socks off, internationally. "Siri, why did Apple make you?"..."Apple doesn't tell me everything you know." Thus speaks Siri , the artificially intelligent personal digital assistant from the iPhone 4S that's all over the tech and regular press because she's charming, useful, novel (even if her sharp wit wasn't originally developed by Apple ), and works unlike almost every other encounter with voice-recognition tech you may have had: well.

This post is one in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual . The state of social media is no insignificant affair. Nor is it a conversation relegated to a niche contingent of experts and gurus