Apple has announced that it will replace the hard drives on MacBooks bought between 2006 and 2007 if you can prove that your hard drive has failed. The offer is open until August 15th of this year, or three years after the MacBook was purchased. Get additional details (via Gizmodo)

Image credit: TheYoungThousands

You’ve spent hours of time on the development of an iPhone or iPad application. You’ve spent time making sure your app works right and looks a certain way and now that it’s done, you’re convinced that your app is so good it’s just going to sell itself. Wrong, think again.

It’s not a secret that you need to do more than just throw your new application up on the app store and hope for the best. Not all apps are good enough to sell themselves, and in fact majority of them fall short from even attracting a modest number of users. The current structure of the app store is not designed to help developers promote their apps, even if you do create the most amazing app anyone has ever seen. With over 150,000 apps on the app store, good design alone isn’t going to skyrocket you to the top of the charts. An effective marketing plan combined with a well designed app however, can elevate all those hard spent efforts to the top of the pack in record time and make all your efforts worthwhile.

In order for people to download and use your app, they have to find it first and that can be difficult to achieve. The only way that large numbers of people are going to know that your app exists to download, is if an all out effort is made to get it out there in the public eye. You need to be social with it, be visible and talk about your app every you chance you get. The more public your app is, the more visibility it will have and the more downloads it will get.

Sounds simple, right? Well not exactly. If you’ve got the money you can hire an agency that understands your product and the audience you are targeting and let them drive the marketing efforts. However, if like most startups or indie developers or anyone else who’s on a budget then you need another more affordable alternative. Guess what, you’re in luck. You can successfully market your app with 1 or 2 people dedicated to the efforts. Ideally those people should have a background in marketing, but if you don’t have the budget to hire someone to help, you can accomplish a lot of it yourself with a little determination and focus.
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Every day we see millions of ads, but this one was brought to my attention by another blogger as brilliant for getting out your brand name in a very unlikely spot. The bins at the Airport terminal security checkpoint

*Note that this ad is strategically placed to catch people who are paying attention to their shoes as well as giving a simple, straight forward message that is absorbed in less than 20 seconds.

I’m a huge fan of Zappos and for building your business on the customer experience which Zappos continues to do very well at. While I generally think there is a lot of money wasted on advertising that never really hits the audience in the right way, this is just another example of a great marketing strategy.

According to a a posting on Techflash Chris Liddell, who resigned last month as Microsoft’s chief financial officer, will receive a total of $1.9 million under a “resignation agreement” disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Microsoft will pay Liddell $950,000 on Dec. 31 and another $950,000 on March 31 compensation for the first half of the current 2010 fiscal year (which began on July 1), and for “performance of his obligations under the agreement,” according to the filing.

Liddell made a total of $3.7 million in salary, bonus and stock awards in fiscal 2009, according to the company’s proxy statement.

What’s wrong with this new ad from Verizon & Google for the new Droid?

Looks remarkably similar to the iconic photograph of the first iPhone at Macworld 2007 that was shot by James Duncan Davidson and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t called ahead of time to consult on creative ideas.

Check out the original photo below

This is one instance where the creative team working on the Droid launch should take time to consider creativity.

In a press release this morning, The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $55.4 million, multiple-year contract to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to become the nation’s sole operator of its Cancer Information Service Contact Center.

Since Fred Hutchinson is located in Seattle, it looks like a few more jobs will be added to the local economy with the contract win.

The NCI, the nation’s lead agency for cancer research, established the CIS in 1975 to educate people about cancer prevention, risk factors, early detection, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and research. The CIS is an essential part of NCI’s cancer prevention and control efforts.
“We are the voice of the National Cancer Institute,” said Dawn Sittauer, Seattle CIS contact center manager. View the full press release

I will be attending Chris Pirillo’s Social Media conference, Gnomedex on August 20th in Seattle. It’s sure to be an interesting two days accelerating ideas around social media and online communities.