Users of Facebook‘s apps — for Android, iPad and iPhone — may begin seeing ads as soon as early March, as the company looks to gain an addition revenue source before it goes public.

Sources close to the matter say Facebook has already discussed proposals with advertising agencies, according to the Financial Times. Facebook began running sponsored stories in December 2011. Featured stories will appear in the mobile news feed — similar to Twitter’s promoted tweets — mixed in with posts from your friends.

In Facebook’s paperwork for its Initial Public Offering, filed Feb. 1, the company pointed to mobile as a potential revenue source — and warned that the lack of mobile revenue was one of the things that could harm it. Nearly half of Facebook’s 845 million users access the site via mobile device.

One source told FT Facebook would incentivize advertisers to link within Facebook, rather than directing users off-site.

Facebook will hold an event for marketers in New York Feb. 29, so we can expect announcements of new ways they can use the social network. Facebook is yet to unveil Timeline brand pages, although that move is anticipated in coming weeks as Facebook rolls out Timeline for all users.

Will ads on Facebook mobile deter you from using the service? Is a smartphone screen too small for promoted stories? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Additional Facebook IPO Coverage

• Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO
• Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011
• 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook
• Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission
• Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono
• Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them
• Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook’s Best-Paid Employee in 2011

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, franckreporter

More About: Facebook, mobile ads

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Samsung has made one thing clear in its “Next Big Thing” Super Bowl spot — it wants to be the anti-Apple.

The South Korean electronics maker is marketing it’s 5.3-inch smartphone with stylus as the latest player in the world of connected devices.

The ad — as we already new from its teaser released last week — pokes fun at Apple fanboys and fangirls who notoriously camp out in anticipation for iDevice launches.

The towns of San Francisco, Calif, Boston, Ma. and Denver, Co., erupt in non-choreographed flash mobs, when they meet “The Thing Called Love,” the Samsung Galaxy Note.

The phone, which some Mashable editors got their hands on at CES, feels too big to be a phone, measuring over half the length of the iPad.

The Galaxy Note did not have a lot of tech company during the 2012 Super Bowl, as the majority of the ads were, as usual, for beer and cars. Perhaps Samsung will gain something as one of the limited technology advertisers during the game.

Would you want a stylus for your smartphone? Do you think a 5.3-inch screen is too big? Let us know what you think of Samsung’s Super Bowl spot.

The Most-Shared Super Bowl Ads Before the Game

1. "The Bark Side" (Vokswagen)

Not surprisingly, the sequel to the most-shared ad of last year's Super Bowl, and of all of 2011 for that matter, is leading the pack this year. Volkswagen released this video last week showing dogs barking to the tune of Star Wars's "The Imperial March." So does that mean there will be dogs in this year's ad? More Star Wars? We'll know soon enough.

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The New York Giants official website accidentally announced the winner of Super Bowl XLVI more than 24 hours before Sunday’s big game even started.

The error was immortalized Saturday in this TwitPic screenshot (above), which Jeff Frias posted to Twitter. No signs of the mistake are left on the team’s site other than a reported link that leads to the image below:

The Giants have yet to publicly confirm whether this whammy is real or the handy-work of a prankster.

While online blunders have cost people their jobs in the past, this misstep — if real — shows that the Giants organization is unsurprisingly ready to financially capitalize on a possible win.

The link promoted championship garb traditionally sold after national sporting contests. Giants quarterback Eli Manning and three other players are cropped into the promotion along with the Super Bowl’s most-coveted prize, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The ad is emblazoned with these words in all caps: “The Giants are Super Bowl champions!”

The Feb. 5 broadcast of Giants vs. New England Patriots game kicks off at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be followed by many post-game breakdowns of the games and commercials. One Super Bowl post-game analysis will occur within an NBC-backed Google+ Hangout. Participants will dissect the commercials, which this year cost $3.5 million each.

Did you notice the premature winner’s announcement before it was taken down? Sound off below.

BONUS: 10 Athlete Gaffes Aided by Social Media

Online whammies in the sports world are not uncommon. Here are a few recent memorable digital mistakes.

Cappie Pondexter

After a tsunami devastated Japan this March, Cappie Pondexter of the WNBA's New York Liberty tweeted, "What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes." Later she continued hypothesizing with this tweet: "u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so you can't expect anything less." Predictably, Pondexter's tweets sparked a strong backlash, and she eventually took to Twitter again, this time to apologize (left).

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More About: Entertainment, football, sports, Super Bowl

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News of Facebook‘s IPO swamped the Internet earlier this week, when the company’s 213-page S-1 document went up on the SEC’s website, promptly crashing it.

In addition to confirming previous reports that the filing was imminent, the document contained numerous interesting facts that many have long been wondering, such as the company’s revenue, how much Mark Zuckerberg makes, and who the company’s highest-paid employees are.

There were also several key company insights disclosed, such as the factors that Facebook considers to be risks.

Additionally, Mark Zuckerberg himself wrote a letter to potential shareholders, in which he said that Facebook was created for a “social mission – to make the world more open and connected.”

It’s a fascinating look at Facebook, but also a massive document full of legalese and complicated facts. We’ve done our best to break down the most important figures and bits of information, but now you can test yourself: how well do you know the Facebook IPO? Take our quiz below and let us know in the comments what questions you have.

More About: Facebook, facebook ipo, mark zuckerberg, Social Media

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Facebook, if nothing else, is on a social mission, wrote Mark Zuckerberg in a personal letter filed within the company’s preliminary prospectus for Initial Public Offering.

Zuckerberg’s four-page message to potential investors provides a glimpse into what the 27-year-old CEO believes are Facebook’s priorities moving forward. The letter details the mission and values of the company.

For many users, Facebook is simply a space to socialize with friends and raise digital farms. But recreational utility is far from the limits Zuckerberg — and many others — see for the social network, which unites more than 800 million users worldwide.

Facebook is a space for exchanging ideas, providing a check on authority and pushing boundaries. To create the website that facilitates such grandiose objectives, Zuckerberg wants investors to know he encourages his employees to constantly take risks, work quickly and focus on potential impact.

Zuckerberg writes that, through the power of sharing content, Facebook has the potential to increase understanding of other by people across the planet.

We parceled through Zuckerberg’s letter and pulled out 10 highlights, which we think best explain the company’s core values. What do you think of Zuckerberg’s direction? Where do you see Facebook going, now that it’s public? Share your reactions in the comments.

Uniting People

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Additional Facebook IPO Coverage

• Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO
• Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011
• 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook
• Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission
• Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono
• Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them
• Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook’s Best-Paid Employee in 2011
• Facebook: Here Are the 35 Things That Could Kill Our Company
• Facebook IPO: The Illustrated View
• Mark Zuckerberg Spent $700,000 Flying on Private Planes Last Year
• Facebook IPO: Reactions from the Social Web (and Zuckerberg)
• Will the IPO Change Facebook Forever?
• Facebook IPO: No, It’s Not Groundhog Day for the Bubble
• Facebook’s IPO: Reading Between the Lines
• The IPO Won’t Change Facebook. Online Ads Will

Image courtesy of wwwes; Flickr.

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Ah, to live the luxurious life. Facebook announced on Wednesday via its filing for an initial public offering (IPO) how the company fared in 2011, and not surprisingly, its employees racked up (and spent) big money last year.

The Facebook IPO provided details about the base salary of the team, including founder Mark Zuckerberg pulling in a salary of $483,333, plus a $220,500 bonus and “other compensation” worth $783,529.

The filing noted that he spent nearly $700,000 for costs related to private plane use “chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program and on which family and friends flew during 2011.” That includes passenger fees, fuel, crew and catering costs. Another $90,850 of that amount was for “costs related to estate and financial planning.”

Executives were under fire several years ago amid the bank bailout crisis for spending top dollar on chartering private planes. But some high-paid executives — including Steve Jobs — still made some room for traveling in luxury. In fact, flying private was one of the few luxuries the Apple founder afforded himself.

But Zuckerberg wasn’t the highest paid Facebook employee during 2011. In fact, COO Sheryl Sandberg — who earned a base salary of $300,000 — raked in $30.87 million last year.

However, if Facebook manages to raise this capital, it will be on a shortlist of the biggest tech IPOs of all time, and Zuckerberg’s net worth will skyrocket since he owns 28.4% of the company. In fact, Zuckerberg’s salary will fall to $1 annually starting Jan. 1, 2013.

Facebook — which earned $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion in 2011 — now has 845 million active users on the site, up from the estimated 800 million using the site back in September. The company also noted that 250 million photos are uploaded daily and 2.7 billion likes and comments are made each day. Overall, there are a whopping 100 billion friendships on the site.

The full S-1 filing is available here.

Thumbnail courtesy of wwwes.

• Facebook Files for $5 Billion IPO
• Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011
• 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook
• Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission
• Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them
• Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook’s Best-Paid Employee in 2011

BONUS: Facebook’s Road to IPO

1. The Economy of Qatar

The country of Qatar's GDP adds up to about $98 billion.

Image courtesy of Flickr, thinkingjosh

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Vevo generated $150 million in revenue last year, Vevo President and CEO Rio D. Caraeff revealed at AllThingsD‘s media conference on Tuesday.

The two-year-old music video platform, a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media, has paid out $100 million to content owners over the past two years, he added.

“So you’re making money,” AllThingsD‘s Ina Fried observed.

“We’re making money,” Caraeff confirmed, smiling.

More to come…

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Codecademy hasn’t had much trouble attracting people who want to learn how to code — it has been used by more than 1 million people and signed up more than 100,000 people for its New Years resolution class alone, including the New York City mayor. Now it’s hoping to have the same success attracting teachers.

The startup announced Monday that it is launching a course creator tool. Anyone can use the tool to make a game-like coding lesson of their own. According to the company, more than two thousand people have already signed up for the beta version via a link on the website.

Founder Zach Sims tells Mashable the idea emerged early on when the site received emails from both coding professionals who offered their expertise and learners who lamented the site’s limited lesson offerings.

“It seemed natural to better connect the two groups,” he said.

All user-created classes will receive a custom URL that can be shared with the creator’s friends and networks. The startup has hired a full-time employee to screen content that has been submitted for inclusion on the main Codecademy site.

The latter group of courses will solve a problem that Codecademy faced with its quick growth. Lessons are currently restricted to JavaScript. Now the site will quickly expand to Python and Ruby on Rails, and it can leverage specific expertise in each of those areas rather than relying on one team of coders to create content for every language.

“You get the best class for each subject,” Sims says, “not just one authoritative source.”

Coders are already sharing their knowledge through free tutorials and blogs, and Sims thinks the promise of recognition and a large audience will be enough to lure them to Codecademy while keeping their courses free.

Are you a coder? Does the idea of creating a course for Codecademy appeal to you? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Codecademy, coding

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Getting Siri’s voice-recognition capabilities on your phone just became a possibility for Android users and a bit less expensive for iPhone users. Meet Evi — a $.99 app for iPhones and free for Android.

For such a nominal price, don’t expect Evi to be on par with Siri. There are some major differences with Evi as opposed to the quick and integrated Siri. Evi will not schedule meetings on your calendar or let you dictate text messages. But for functions like finding local shops, restaurants and general information, it’s pretty helpful.

I asked Evi: “What time is it, Evi?” and it thought I said, “What time is it TV?”. Messages such as “Just a mo’” appeared on the screen to let me know it was thinking and then it said, “I’m having trouble getting a response from my servers.” Yes, it was noticeably slower than Siri.

Other times it would say, “I don’t know right now — try asking again next week.” I asked, “Can you set my alarm for 9 p.m.?” even though Evi is not synced with the other apps like Siri is, it said it hasn’t learned to do that yet.

Could it be possible that True Knowledge, the company behind Evi, will integrate the app with its operating system’s other functions in the future? Check out the company’s video below introducing Evi.

The voice sounds a lot like Siri, although some reviewers have said the voice sounds annoying. Yes, it thinks too long and sometimes right after you state your query it says it is not getting a response from the servers, but then, your answer appears.

But even as I write this, I keep wanting to call this app Siri because it’s quite similar. However, Apple’s assistant still comes out in the lead compared to Evi [Link to app store].

For as many people who use Siri for making appointments and scheduling calls, there are also many who enjoy the depth of knowledge and wit Siri contains. Ask Siri to “tell me about the Civil War” and it directs me to a related link. Ask Evi the same question and you get a brief encyclopedia response including the dates and a small photo.

Siri also has built-in cleverness. Just to play around with Evi and find out if any sassy answers were built into this app, I asked, “What’s my name?” and it responded, “Who are you? Surely you know the answer to that one already.” I asked Evi other absurd questions like, What should I eat for dinner?” and it pointed me to a website for an olive tapenade recipe.

If you want a bare-bones Siri with some frequent hiccups — but a .99 cent or free price tag — Evi is a good option for now.

What do you think about Evi? Have you used it? How does it compare to Siri? Tell us in the comments.

More About: apps, Evi, siri, voice recognition

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How would you like to put an NBA star to work as your own personal phone operator?

That’s more or less the idea behind a Twitter-driven contest by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. Curry has called for fans to tweet him video clips their best moves from the game H-O-R-S-E, where players try to best one another with trick shots.

Fans have until midnight on Sunday to send their videos to his @StephenCurry30 account with the hashtag #SC30. His top 5 picks will then be entered into a poll on his Facebook page, where fans will vote the ultimate winner.

And what do you get if you win? Curry will record a personalized outgoing voicemail message for you to use. So whenever a friend calls, there will be one of pro basketball’s brightest young stars saying that you’re unavailable but to please leave a message.

“They can give me a script if they want, or leave it up to me to be creative and use my personality a little bit, but we’ll probably end up doing a blend of both,” Curry told Mashable.

Curry, who wears jersey number 30, is one of the NBA’s most active and personable players on Twitter and other social platforms. The H-O-R-S-E contest is the latest in a series of #SC30 promotions he has done in recent months with the help of marketing firm Spiracle Buzz. In November, fans submitted videos of themselves singing Christmas carols to win a personal Skype conversation with Curry. In December, he was touched by a fan’s winning entry in a call for New Year’s resolutions and met with her before a home game.

Curry said it’s not always easy to stay active on social media channels during the busy NBA season, but that the extra effort is worthwhile.

“I just think it’s a lot of fun to go back and forth with people that pay attention to what I’m doing, and it’s a big part of just enjoying this whole NBA process,” he said.

Curry said that he may try to replicate some of the best submitted shots to post back for fans if he gets time between games, workouts and sleep.

One young fan has already set a high bar for the contest with this trick-shot video:

Looks like that kid’s family could be getting a new outgoing voicemail soon courtesy of Stephen Curry.

But who would Curry himself pick to tell people he’s not available? When asked, he chose Cam Newton, the quarterback for his hometown Carolina Panthers NFL team.

“I would get him to guarantee a Panther playoff appearance next year for everyone who called me,” Curry said.

Who would you choose to record your outgoing voicemail message and what would you have them say? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of nba.com/warriors

More About: sports, Twitter

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