Yogi Land

Based on interviews with Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, some analysts are predicting that Apple has already moved 1 million Verizon iPhone units.

Neither Apple nor Verizon has released official sales information about the device, with the exception of an earlier report that Verizon iPhone sales have so far exceeded all previous initial phone launches in the carrier’s history.

Verizon’s Daniel Mead also attributed the embarrassingly short lines for the Verizon iPhone with the fact that 60% of purchases were made online.

As Fortune‘s Phillip Elmer-DeWitt notes, 60% of what? That’s the big question — and one Verizon says it won’t answer until its next quarterly earnings report.

TheStreet‘s Scott Moritz reads this 60% figure as confirmation that Apple and Verizon moved more than 1 million units the first weekend the device was available. Moritz arrives at this number by using analyst estimates of 600,000 pre-orders. Assuming that number is accurate, that would account for 60% of launch sales, thus bringing the total to 1 million.

The iPhone 4 famously sold 1.7 million units in its debut weekend in June 2010.

We wouldn’t expect the Verizon sales to approach the iPhone 4 figures; after all, aside from the carrier, nothing about the device has significantly changed in eight months. Instead, it’s likely that the true demand of the Verizon iPhone — and its overall impact on AT&T’s churn — will be visible when the next iPhone launches. If history is any indicator, that will be in June.

We’re of two thoughts when it comes to the lack of any concrete Verizon iPhone sales figures. On the one hand, not having the information indicates that the figures have fallen short of expectations. On the other hand, the expectations of Verizon iPhone sales could quite possibly be out of the realm of possibility for any device or company. The fact is that this was the best phone launch in Verizon’s history — despite the launch being for an eight-month old device.

Apple will reveal the iPad 2 on Wednesday March 2, 2011. Perhaps the company will shed more light on Verizon iPhone sales then.

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Who will take home the hardware tonight at the Oscars 2011 awards ceremony? Here’s another perspective, leveraging the power of social media to find out which actors and films were talked about most, this time in an infographic created by the Meltwater Group.

This infographic confirms most of what we saw yesterday in that Webtrends pre-Oscar buzz graphic, with a notable exception.

The methodologies for the two graphics were similar, where for this graphic, the Meltwater Group started tracking three award categories (Best Picture, Actor and Actress) back on January 25, gathering data from blogs, comments, video, Facebook, and microblogs such as Twitter to arrive at this data. Meltwater went further, cross-checking back to January 20, “to make sure the conversation was generally about the nominee in relation to the Oscars.”

Meltwater admits that “The most talked-about nominees are not necessarily going to be the ones who are named the winners by the Academy,” saying that it is presenting its data as more of a fun way to see which films and actors are being talked about the most.

Webtrends’ data collection differed from Meltwater’s, even though both admit that this more of a popularity contest than a predictor of winners. Webtrends counted both English- and Spanish-language mentions of films or actors, and didn’t count video in its data gathered. However, it had Inception taking the win for Best Picture with The King’s Speech trailing far behind in seventh place.

The other two categories were remarkably similar, where Webtrends matched the Meltwater estimate of James Franco winning the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as Natalie Portman taking on the trophy for Best Actress.

Why do you think there was such a discrepancy between the Best Picture nominees, even though the methodologies of the two studies were similar?

Graphic courtesy Meltwater Group

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Say goodbye to the Share button because the Like button is taking over.

After months of updates to the functionality and design of its Like button, Facebook released an update that fundamentally changes the button’s functionality to that of a Share button. Now after hitting the Like button, a full story with a headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to your profile wall. You’ll also be given an option to comment on the story link. Previously, only a link to the story would appear in the recent activity, often going unnoticed by users.

Though users may now think twice about hitting the button, given how prominently it will appear on their walls and in their networks’ newsfeeds, it should ultimately increase traffic to publishers’ websites.

Facebook has slowly been rolling out updates to its Like button and has stopped developing the Share Button. Facebook Spokeswoman Malorie Lucich told us that while the company will continue to support the Share button, Like is the “recommended solution moving forward.”

Perhaps the change was necessary. Because it was never made clear to users that the Like button would function differently than the Share button, many never understood what it meant to click Like on a piece of content. Making the result the same as the Share button could build stronger user expectations, ultimately fashioning a better user experience.

We want to know what you think. Do you “like” the new button?

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In case you’re wondering precisely how likable those Angry Birds are, here’s the scoop from The Oatmeal, one of our favorite sources of infographics.

For Angry Birds aficionados, here are a couple of things left out: You’ve got to like that red bird a little more because of the useless call it bleats out if you tap the screen during its flight. Although it’s not exactly an effective pig crusher, look out for its big brother.

And of course, the white bird that drops the exploding eggs seems rather helpless; but a finer point of the game is if you can drop an egg when the bird’s almost hit the ground, it will fly upward with extreme velocity, perhaps knocking over something important. That ought to be good enough to move it up at least one place on this totem pole of shame.

Editor’s Note: While we appreciate the in-depth knowledge of the game that this post represents, perhaps our writers are devoting a bit too much time to Angry Birds “research.” What do you folks think?

Image courtesy of The Oatmeal

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Tunisians filled the streets with the help of Twitter. Egypt’s protests were coordinated on Facebook pages like that of Internet activist Wael Ghonim. Libyan dissenters spread the word about their “day of rage” last week the same way. And yet, in these heady days where the entire Middle East seems to be inspired to organize online in revolt against autocracy, it has become fashionable for experts to dismiss the role of social media in 2011′s revolutions.

“People protested and brought down governments before Facebook was invented,” the New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell opined on February 2. A few weeks later, The Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman reminded us that “the French managed to storm the Bastille without the help of Twitter – and the Bolsheviks took the Winter Palace without pausing to post photos of each other on Facebook.”

True enough — and utterly irrelevant. Those uprisings had a strong assist from contemporary technology too. The Bolshevik revolution would hardly have happened without the telegraphs and trains that spirited Lenin to the Finland station at the right moment. And what would the French revolution have been without the latest high-tech gadget, hot from the workshop of Dr. Joseph Guillotin?

Yes, of course, technology alone doesn’t make revolutions. The will of the people is the most vital ingredient. To ferment revolt, first let their resentment simmer for a few decades. But that doesn’t mean social media cannot provide wavering revolutionaries with vital aid and comfort. Remember the kids being interviewed in Tahir Square the night Mubarak resigned? What struck me most was what they were doing while waiting for the reporter to finish his introduction: thumbing on their smartphones. Want to hazard a guess at the website they were checking?

Read the full column on CNN.com >>

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You’ll soon be able to use a dedicated page on Facebook to vote for your favorites on American Idol.

Viewers and fans will be allowed to cast their ballots up to 50 times, as long as they vote during that broadcast’s designated voting period, according to Entertainment Weekly.

This new method of voting won’t replace the traditional toll-free telephone call or text message, but for Facebook users, it certainly sounds a lot easier than dealing with the plague of busy signals or spam texts we’ve experienced when using the other two voting methods on American Idol.

While this is the first direct online voting method, you might recall last year’s “Idol Fanatic” Facebook voting routine, which used Ribbit online telephony to automatically dial in votes submitted via its Facebook application. That looks to be a thing of the past — a visit to that Facebook page today showed it to be defunct, with no activity since May 18, 2010, a week before last season ended. Too bad, because the page’s users had an uncanny ability of predicting who would be voted off the show before it was over.

According to the report, online voting will be implemented soon, showing up on next Tuesday’s (March 1) American Idol.

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A study published in tomorrow’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms what researchers have long suspected: that long conversations on cell phones affect parts of your brain. Trouble is, not even the study’s authors, the National Institute of Health, know how the calls affect you — just that they light up a significant chunk of your gray matter near the phone.

“We don’t know whether this is detrimental or whether it could have some potential beneficial effects. We don’t know one way or the other,” lead author Dr. Nora Volkow told HealthDay.

Potential beneficial effects? Well, yes. All the study found when it tracked 47 mobile-toting participants for one year was this: brain metabolism in a small area nearest the antenna was 7% higher when they were on a 50-minute call. So cell phones boost brain activity. (Specifically, they raise glucose levels.) Doesn’t sound so bad when put like that, does it? For all we know, blasting your brain with focused radio waves could be the mental equivalent of going to the gym. Glucose levels rise with just about any complex brain activity. For comparison, that 7% metabolism boost is less than the amount of energy it takes to process images via your eyes.

Of course, for all we know, the long-term effects could be pretty scary. Tumor cells need a lot of glucose, too. But that may be no more than coincidence. Researchers were careful to tiptoe around the C-word. And with good reason: as Ars Technica points out, in biology, there is absolutely no known mechanism that could lead from low-energy, long-wavelength radiation to cancer. A giant, 13-nation study begun in 2000 still hasn’t found any proof linking the two. Cell phone users, science is on your side — for now.

Bottom line: we know relatively little about brain science and even less about cell phone use. Decades of further study is going to be needed for a definitive answer. We’ve all heard anecdotes from friends about how calls give them headaches, or a buzzing sensation. They could be right, or they could be hypochondriacs. Maybe cell phones affect each brain differently. At the moment, there’s just no way of telling.

If you’re concerned, be like Dr. Volkow — who told TIME that she’s started using a $5 headset so she doesn’t have to hold her phone to her ear any more. “Maybe at the end of the day cell phones aren’t damaging,” she said. “But it’s only $5.”

More About: brain, cancer, cell phones, mobile phones

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Various rumors and web reports indicate that Apple will be releasing updates to its MacBook Pro line later this week, possibly as soon as Thursday. It’s about time, too — with the exception of the redesigned MacBook Air, Apple hasn’t updated its best-selling MacBook Pro lineup since April 2010.

The latest rumors of the new machines run the gamut — everything from faster processors and integrated SSDs to larger trackpads and support for Light Peak is on the table. Separating fact from fiction is tough — even the best Apple predictors have imperfect track records, but we’ve done what we can to tally up the big rumors. We’ll also offer up our own thoughts on how plausible or implausible something sounds.

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Rumor 1: Launch Date This Week

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Sources: iSpazio (Italian Mac blog), AppleInsider

Rumor: As the MacBook Pro supply chain tightens across the world, five new MacBook Pro models are set to debut this week, most likely on Thursday.

Plausibility: Almost guaranteed. The second-best indicator of new Apple products are fluctuations in supply chain availability for items that tend to sell at a regular pace. When estimated shipping dates start to to drift upward, it’s usually a good sign that a new model series is about to drop.

The best indicator of new Apple products is the inevitable leaking of SKU and model numbers. Best Buy inadvertently leaked five new Apple SKUs on Sunday.

Other Thoughts: There are currently six laptops in the MacBook Pro lineup and it isn’t clear what model has been dropped from the lineup. Our guess is one of the 15-inch variants or the 17-inch MacBook Pro is on its way out.

AppleInsider reports that the reason for the Thursday release date (Apple products usually come put on a Tuesday) is intentional — February 24, 2011 is Steve Jobs’s 56th birthday.

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Rumor 2: New Models Will Use Intel’s Sandy Bridge

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Sources: CNET (for MacBook Air), PCMag, AppleInsider

Rumor: Apple will be one of the first OEMs to ship laptops running on Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture.

Plausibility: 60%. Apple tends to be the first or the last OEM to jump on a major Intel platform. The Mac Pro line tends to be at the front-of-the-line with the latest chip architectures while Apple tends to wait a few cycles for its notebook systems. The big promise of Sandy Bridge, however, could indicate Apple wants to try to stay ahead of the curve.

Other Thoughts: Last month, Intel discovered a design flaw in Sandy Bridge’s companion chipset. This flaw required the company to recall shipments and delay production — it will also cost the company $1 billion in revenue and replacement costs. All reports indicate that Apple will not be affected by this delay.

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Rumor 3: Bigger Trackpad and OS-only SSD

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Sources: BGR

Rumor: The new MacBook Pro will feature glass trackpads that are even larger than those on current MacBook Pro units. Additionally, the OS will be loaded onto a separate integrated 8-16GB SSD drive for fast startups and access, but additional data will be stored on a traditional hard drive.

Plausibility: The larger trackpad rumor sounds quite possible — especially as Apple prepares to get more into gesture support with Mac OS X Lion. As for the separate SSD OS drive — a hybrid solution like this is certain appealing and if completely seamless, we think it could work. Still, we’re not completely convinced. We do think that Apple will be pushing SSD options or making the SSD standard on several MacBook Pro models, but we just don’t know about this hybrid approach.

Other Thoughts: We haven’t heard anything one way or another about the DVD drive in the MacBook Pro. We wonder if Apple will be adding the option to forego the drive as it does on the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server.

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Rumor 4: Liquidmetal MacBook Pro

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Sources: MacTrust [Site is down] via Cult of Mac

Rumor: The next MacBook Pro will trade in the unibody aluminum design for a case made from Liquidmetal — a metal that has similar properties and processing abilities as plastic. Apple signed an exclusive agreement to use Liquidmetal in its products last year and MacTrust contends that the MacBook Pro will be where the technology makes its debut.

Plausibility: As cool as Liquidmetal sounds, we’re going to say this has only a 10% chance of actually being true. As Leader Kahney said, “this is Tony Stark stuff” — which makes us think that the first real implementations of the technology is still a few release cycles away.

Other Thoughts: Liquidmetal has amazing potential as a construction element. Purportedly stronger and lighter than aluminum, Liquidmetal could reduce the weight of a laptop while still making it more resilient to the nicks and dings that unibody MacBook Pro owners know all too well.

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Rumor 5: Light Peak

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Sources: CNET

Rumor: Apple is going to announce its adoption of Intel’s Light Peak technology and introduce its first products using the technology in the first half of 2011.

Plausibility: Again, as cool as this sounds, we’re going to say this has almost no chance of being true. With bi-directional speeds of 10 gigabits a second, Light Peak has the potential to be the next USB (that is, ubiquitous and on every device known to man). Of course, it could also wind up as the next FireWire (superior to the competition in every way but not ubiquitous or widely adopted outside of certain industries and manufacturers). Regardless, we don’t expect to see any shipping Light Peak products — let alone from Apple — for quite a few more months.

Other Thoughts: Intel has been working on Light Peak — which is basically a super connector cable that can be used for basically any type of computer component — monitor, hard drive, printer, etc. — for years. Because the technology was originally demonstrated on a machine running Mac OS X in 2009, it’s assumed Apple is at least tangentially interested in the technology.

CNET’s report — which itself was skeptical that Apple would launch the technology in the next MacBook Pro, indicates that Apple will be calling the technology something other than Light Peak. Additional reports have circulated today indicating that the next iPad could have Light Peak support. To us, the iPad rumors sound even less plausible than the MacBook Pro reports.

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Hit Us With Your Rumors

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With the understanding that absolutely no one can top the incredible John Moltz when it comes to Crazy Apple Rumors, let your craziest most outlandish predictions for the new MacBook Pro lineup be known in the comments. For our more mature readers, feel free to share what logical, well-reasoned predictions you have as well.

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We knew the price for Motorola’s upcoming Android tablet, the Xoom, would be $800, but seeing the price on a live Best Buy pre-order page turns this haunting mental image into harsh reality.

You can pre-order the Xoom, which currently comes in only one flavor, now and pick it up Thursday, February 24, in Best Buy stores.

The Xoom is one of the first tablets on the market to run Android 3.0 or Honeycomb, the first version of Android designed specifically for tablets. It sports impressive features: a 10.1” widescreen HD display, a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, as well as Wi-Fi and 3G support. Add to that the 5-megapixel camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel one on the front, as well as the accelerometer and HDMI output, and you might even be able to justify the price tag.

Besides the Xoom itself, Best Buy also offers several accessories, including a $70 Bluetooth wireless keyboard, a $130 speaker dock, and a $40 portfolio-style case.

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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

With record-keeping and quarterly payments, tax planning is a year-round event for the small business owner.

Tax-related activities, though, inevitably take on a new sense of urgency as April 15 looms near. While tax time can seem overwhelming for the time-pressed small business owner, there are many online tools and forums available to make the process a little easier and stress-free. Here are ten of our favorites.

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Preparing and Filing Your Taxes Online

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Sitting down with a professional who specializes in small business is always a smart idea, particularly during the first year or two of operations. However, not every business owner wants to shoulder the costs of hiring an expert to help fill out relatively routine fields on their Schedule C.

If you opt to use an online or software-based tax preparation tool, be aware that not all solutions (particularly the free tools) accommodate business tax filers. Before you sign up for any service, download software or invest time filling out your information, make sure that the service supports the common business forms.

The following is a selection of tools available for small businesses:

• IRS e-file: The IRS offers electronic filing options for Employment Tax Returns, Information Returns, Partnerships, Corporations, Estates & Trusts, plus Exempt Organizations.
• TurboTax: A popular tool for personal income filers, TurboTax from Intuit also offers software to guide small businesses through the filing process. The software helps you make sure you’re taking advantage of every business deduction and write-off. A sole proprietor, consultant, 1099 contractor or single-owner LLC should use the Home & Business version; S Corps, partnerships, C Corps, or multiple-owner LLCs should use the Business version. Free e-filing is included in both versions.
• H&R Block Tax Software: Two versions are available for businesses: Premium & Business (LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps) and Premium (sole proprietors). Even if you decide not to pay for the tax filing software, check out H&R Block’s small business tax preparation checklist as a great starting point to get organized and make sure you’re thinking about every possible expense and income source.
• Tax Act Business: Tax Act has separate federal and state editions for business tax forms 1065, 1120S, and 1120.

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Managing Your Paper Receipts

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Whether you’re a road warrior or work strictly from the home office, you’ll probably find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of receipts accumulated throughout the year. All too often, receipts are stuffed into pockets, end up on the car floor, are run through the washing machine — every lost or illegible receipt represents a missed opportunity to deduct a well-deserved expense for your business.

If manually managing paper receipts in a file system and spreadsheet isn’t working out for you, here are two alternative ideas:

• Shoeboxed: This service takes the paper receipts off your hands. You can scan your receipts and upload them to your Shoeboxed account. Or, you can mail in the paper receipts and they’ll handle the scanning and data entry for you. There’s also an iPhone app (as pictured above), or you can take images of receipts with a digital camera. Online, you can sort your receipts, create charts and graphs, and export data to Quicken, Excel, or PDF. There are different monthly and annual plans, as well as a free trial. There are a number of expense report and receipt tracking apps out there, so definitely shop around to find the one that fits your needs.
• NeatReceipts: You can purchase your own portable scanner from NeatReceipts which lets you scan receipts (up to a full-sized document) to your PC or Mac. You’re able to export data to PDF, Excel, Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax.

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Getting Help Online

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Whether it’s your first or fifteenth year as a business owner, you’re bound to run into tax-related questions from time to time. Does deducting my home office really increase my chance of an audit? How can I deduct my health insurance? When traveling for business, are there limits on the amount I can deduct for my meals? Can I deduct the parking ticket I got while visiting a client?

If you haven’t hired a CPA or tax preparer, don’t despair — you can still find answers to your specific questions online. Browse through community forums and post your own questions online. You’ll get answers from business owners just like you. Of course, as with any online community, the quality and accuracy of answers may vary. But hopefully, the “wisdom of the crowd” will filter out the incorrect or less than helpful information. Here’s a short list of various online forums catering to the small business owner and self-employed individual.

• Small business and self-employed tax center at the IRS: The IRS has been beefing up its online resources — the small business tax center offers FAQs, tax tips, help videos and more. Most importantly, it offers highlights of the year’s tax law changes — for example, a new deduction for health insurance costs in computing self-employment taxes for 2010 (part of the Small Business Jobs Act), is outlined. It also includes helpful information on home office deductions.
• H&R Block Get It Right Community: Your questions are answered by certified CPAs and tax advisors.
• About.com Business Taxes: While not a community forum, this About.com site compiles some useful information, definitions and articles for small businesses.
• Intuit Community: Intuit offers some fantastic resources for the small business owner. While not specific to tax filings per se, Intuit’s Managing Business Finances forum lets business owners post and answer questions on a full range of business finance issues (including taxes and deductions). And at Intuit’s TurboTax Live Community, you can pose questions and browse community discussions on tax preparation.

Of course, trying to get your head around all the deductions and forms is not easy, particularly when you’re just starting out. The IRS estimates that filing your own business taxes will take approximately 52 hours. Keeping your finances in order throughout the whole year can help immensely come tax time. If this is your first year filing business taxes, be sure to learn from the experience. For example, if gathering the details and documentation for a section (like your mileage deductions) is particularly time-consuming, take some time to think about what you could do throughout the year to improve the situation when it’s tax time next year. And then, of course, you can turn to the web for guidance when the time has come.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Pgiam

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