What You Need to Know Today: August 3
Your Early to Rise daily briefing. Today, a new form of sexting, why offending customers isn’t bad, the story behind Goldman Sachs’s offensive Twitter account and more.
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TECH
What happened when scientists tested 30 iPhone Fitness apps. Researchers rounded up 30 popular free fitness apps for the iPhone, dissected what they do, and compared them against American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for physical activity (Washington Post). The results: only one app – the Sworkit Lite Personal Workout Trainer – met more than half the criteria from the guidelines. “The issues with these apps place users at risk for injury because the apps fail to prepare them to take on the exercises, use proper techniques and address safety issues,” said Francois Modave, lead author of the study.
+ Here’s one iPhone fitness app that wasn’t listed in the study, but would pass the test.
New form of Sexting. There’s a new kind of Sexting going around and it’s not what you think. Imagine selling your product to a potential customer through text? Locent is doing just that, making selling through text (sexting) easy. How’s your sales copy text game, bro?
How to pass the time. When you’re commuting home, you may find yourself with free time and nothing to do but play Candy Crush over and over again. Why not teach yourself how to code instead? That’s the idea behind Lrn, a new iOS app that lets you learn the basics of coding in JavaScript — even without an internet connection (Business Insider).
CAREER
Don’t stop offending your most important customers. Earlier this year, Abercrombie & Fitch did just that when they abolished the infamous “Look Policy,” to appeal more politically correct. The problem? They’ve undermined their target customer. Before you start thinking that I condone offensive behavior, I don’t, understand this: “Who you don’t serve is every bit as important as who you do,” says Dan Kennedy. Abercrombie’s offensive, exclusionary policies, are what differentiated the brand from the competition. The take home point is to understand the value in choosing the right audience (#3 on Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan list).
+ The story behind the famously offensive Twitter account that parodies Wall Street culture.
How to rank on top of Google. Let me be the first to tell you, just because you added a WordPress SEO plugin does not mean your website is optimized. In many cases it will actually hurt your rankings, says Alex Miranda. Alex optimised the website of one of NYC premier commercial knife sharpening companies (before they became big) to rank on the first page of Google. This is Alex’s step-by-step guide on how he did it.
LIFESTYLE
If you’re young, hungry for success, then consider living here. A new trend, that was exclusive to the West-Coast tech crowd, is now starting to form in other parts of the US. Co-living for millennials is in right now.
+ The 12 hottest cities for tech that are not Silicon Valley or NYC.
What is the purpose of love? [Answered] “The most memorable lecture of my college career was the one in which biological anthropologist Melvin Konner asked a room full of impressionable undergraduates what the purpose of love could be. Theatrically, he let a few of us answer. Then he dropped the hammer… ‘What if the purpose of love isn’t getting people into relationships, but out of them?’” Read the full story here.
Almost forgot about Dre. What spells love like a new Dr. Dre album being released (after 15 years) this Friday on Apple Music? Nothing.
#NOWYOUKNOW
50 Things You Forgot About Dre.
2) Dr Dre didn’t know Eminem was white when he decided to work with him.
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