WebProNews

Tag: Town Hall

  • Tim Cook Announces New Mac, iPad Discounts For Apple Employees

    If you haven’t already heard, Apple had a big quarter.

    The company just released their Q4 earnings, and with the help of the holiday season, absolutely destroyed all expectations. Apple posted Q4 revenue of $46.33 billion, beating the expected figure of $38 billion. They also reported a record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

    Partly in celebration of these record numbers, and party to talk about the future, Apple CEO Tim Cook held a Town Hall with Apple employees Wednesday morning. Employees could attend in person or online via AppleWeb. Cook said in an email “we’ll review our record-setting results and discuss some exciting new things going on at Apple.”

    But Apple employees were treated to another surprise, as Cook announced an incentive that will help them upgrade to the latest Apple technology for their personal use. According to 9to5Mac, Cook told everyone that soon, they will get $500 credits on new Mac purchases and $250 credits on new iPad purchases.

    These will kick in sometime in June of this year with two catches: First, employees can only use the credit once every three years. Second, employees must have been at Apple for at least 90 days before they can use the discounts.

    I guess Apple’s huge successes as of late are trickling down to employees. And if they keep selling iPhones faster than babies are being born, Apple employees can probably expect stuff like this to continue.

    $500 off a Mac is a really nice discount. But Google had one of the best employee giveaways ever when they gifted brand new customized Galaxy Nexus phones to employees for the holidays.

  • Jon Stewart Takes On LinkedIn

    Jon Stewart Takes On LinkedIn

    I’ll admit it, I’m not that active on LinkedIn. I came to the party late, and with my heart (and time) already invested in Facebook, Twitter and to a certain extent Google+, I just couldn’t really motivate myself to grow a real presence.

    Apparently, neither has Jon Stewart.

    LinkedIn, of course, is the social network for professionals. According to the company, they connect over 120 million professionals who “exchange information, ideas and opportunities.”

    Jon Stewart thinks that it is a company whose sole purpose is spamming his inbox. On his nightly show “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” he discussed the merits of LinkedIn while covering the recent Obama / LinkedIn Town Hall.

    Check out the clip below –

    Although it’s totally unfair to point to four unemployed LinkedIn members and make an assumption about the usefulness of the social network itself, it’s still pretty funny. Plus, nobody said that comedy has to be fair to anyone.

    Of course, everyone isn’t simply on LinkedIn to find a job. LinkedIn helps people re-connect with former co-workers and classmates and lets you make new business connections to help your professional career. Plus, its use as a social network allows users to get information and feedback from millions of industry professionals.

    Like I said before, I’m not really a LinkedIn’er. What about you guys? Do any of Jon Stewart’s rips about the service have merit? How do you use LinkedIn? Let us know in the comments.

  • Obama’s Twitter Town Hall Kicks Off Tomorrow

    Last week, The White House announced that President Obama would be participating in his first “Twitter Town Hall” meeting, allowing the world to ask questions directly to the Commander-In-Chief.

    That event kicks off at 2 p.m. EDT tomorrow, so you still have time to submit your questions for possible discussion. Interested participants are being asked to use the hashtag #AskObama when they tweet their questions. The focus, according to The White House and Twitter, will be on the economy and more specifically, jobs.

    There is an official blog post up about the Town Hall on the Twitter blog. On that post we learn that specific economy-themed questions will be both selected in advance from the thousands of tweets already sent as well as selected live, during the Town Hall.

    @jack
    Jack Dorsey    Setting up the @TownHall. Here’s the Twitter and @MassRelevance team. Have your question in? http://t.co/iX8ACtN http://t.co/ojO7pO9 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @BarackObama
    Barack Obama    Tomorrow, the President answers your questions live at the White House Twitter @townhall. Use #AskObama to ask yours: http://t.co/M9I1j2x 4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @amac
    A Macgillivray    I wonder what jobs/economy question @VP will #askobama? How about @SpeakerBoehner? @NancyPelosi? @SenJohnMcCain? http://t.co/wIkjX3j 5 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    From the Twitter blog –

    • We’ve partnered with Mass Relevance to curate, visualize and integrate conversations for the event.
    • Algorithms behind Twitter search will identify the Tweets that are most engaged with via Retweets, Favorites and Replies.
    • A team of seasoned Twitter users with experience discussing the economy will help flag questions from their communities through retweets.

    Not only can you follow the questions and responses via @townhall, but you can also watch a live stream of the event at askobama.twitter.com.

    It looks like Twitter hopes this is just one of many future high-profile partnerships between the government and their service. I’m sure people from every place on the political spectrum can join in a collective “Hooray” for social media engagement.

  • White House Announces First Twitter Town Hall With Obama

    The White House has just announced via their official Twitter account that the first Twitter Town Hall with President Obama is starting today.

    Twitter users are being asked to submit questions to the President from now until July 6th. Just tweet your questions “about the economy and jobs” with the hashtag #AskObama, and your question will have the chance to be answered.

    When will the President answer these job questions? At a live webcast from the White House on July 6th at 2 p.m. EDT.

    askObama.twitter.com has been created as the official site for the town hall. That’s where you can watch the live stream of the President answering the Twitter-posed questions next Wednesday.

    (image)@whitehouse
    The White House    BREAKING: 1st Twitter @townhall w/ Pres Obama at the WH on 7/6 @ 2ET. #AskObama your Qs on the economy & jobs: http://t.co/Uk04H97(image) 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The Town Hall has also developed its own Twitter account @townhall that will give users updates up until the Q&A goes down.

    (image)@townhall
    Town Hall    Follow this account for updates on the Twitter @Townhall at the @WhiteHouse. July 6th 2pm ET. Instructions at: http://t.co/CjGTUa6 #AskObama(image) 53 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    This isn’t the first time that the White House has organized with Twitter to promote discussion. Back in May, Obama gave a big speech on the situation in the Middle East. The White House held a follow-up chat to the speech live on Twitter. Reporters from NPR and Foreign Policy interviewed Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes based on user questions coming in on Twitter.