Brick-Size Snooze Button Connects to Your iPhone [VIDEO]

Anyone who uses their iPhone as an alarm clock doesn’t “hit the snooze” button — rather, they tap or slide to get a few more minutes of sleep.

But if you miss the big ol’ snooze button of traditional alarm clocks and still want the reliability of your iPhone alarm clock, a company on Kickstarter wants to give you the best of both worlds with its snooze button that attaches to your iPhone.

For $50 ($40 if you get in on the early bird special) you can purchase the Snooze and support the Kickstarter project — or “keep the dream alive” as the company says (pun intended).

The boxy alarm clock allows you to charge your iPhone while it’s plugged in, but, instead of lunging for your phone when it goes off in the morning, you can just slam the brick-sized bar on the clock.

The Snooze is a project of Distil Union in Charleston, S.C. The product design company has developed a number of sleek devices that work with the iPhone, for example this SocketDock that provides a stand for your iPhone on the wall outlet while it charges.

We’ve seen tech utilized to create cooler and more demanding alarm clocks that are sure to get you out of bed. Mashable recently wrote about an alarm clock that won’t stop beeping until you get out of bed and enter a disarming code from a keypad in the next room. Another motivates you to wake up by threatening to shred your money. And an alarm clock app for that we profiled requires you to shake it vigorously to prove you’re awake.

What do you think of the Snooze? Would you buy one? Tell us in the comments.

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Facebook Confirms Testing ‘Call’ Button for Online Video Chats

Facebook is reminding users how to make video calls via the social network by testing a “Call” button on member Timeline pages.

The button, which was first spotted by TechCrunch, is located next to the “Message” option on Facebook Timeline’s layout. The “Chat” button would replace the subtle video-camera icon now used to start an online video chat.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that the button is only a test, so it’s unknown at this time if it will become a permanent part of Timeline. In the meantime, some members using a desktop version of Facebook will be able to test the feature.

Although Facebook partnered with popular online chat service Skype nearly a year ago, the social network hasn’t made the option overly visible on the site. Now with the increase in popularity of social chat services such as Google Hangouts and Airtime — which was launched by former Facebook president Sean Parker — it looks like Facebook is ready to get the service more on its users’ radar.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg Does Not Look Thrilled with Airtime

This isn’t the first time Facebook has played with the concept of a “Call” button. It was featured on the previous version of profile pages, but it was hard to find in the settings drop-down menu.

Do you think the “Call” button will influence Facebook members to use video chat more? Will Facebook be able to compete against other social video chat services such as Airtime and Google Hangouts? Let us know your opinion in the comments.

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For all of its improvements in randomized video chat, Airtime's dedication to protecting minors from X-rated content has to be its crown jewel.

That, coupled with its Facebook connectivity, gives Airtime an air of legitimacy that many other services don't have.

Like Google+, it also has YouTube sharing capability. Airtime uses your Facebook data to connect you with like-minded strangers, or even friends of friends, though for now, it's relatively limited to industry insiders.

Ever a classic, Skype is among the reliable, go-to platforms for voice, video and instant messaging. However, unlike most of these other services, Skype requires software installation to your computer.

Chatting on Skype is limited to people you know and have added to your contacts. You can use Skype to call phones as well as screen names, send files and screenshare, a great feature for coworkers collaborating remotely. Group video chat is only available with Skype Premium.

Hangout, Google's video chat service, has a leg-up on Skype — it runs straight through your browser, so you can use it on any webcam-enabled computer, no software installation necessary.

Use Hangouts to watch YouTube videos, screenshare or edit shared Google Docs with up to 10 friends. Plus, thanks to Google+'s video effects, you can do it all while wearing a top hat and a monocle. Cheerio, chap!

Video chat on Facebook is about as basic as it gets — no screensharing, no group video chat, no YouTube compatibility.

And while the service—which is the product of a partnership with Skype—does have the major advantage of connecting you with what's likely your most thorough contact list, several of the other clients are roping in your Facebook friends, too.

The social giant might soon feel the pressure to add more functions if it wants to keep users hooked to the video chat service.

Unlike most free, anonymous video chat services, Omegle has managed to maintain steady momentum since it was created in March 2009.

The site pairs you with a random stranger in your choice of text, audio or video chat format. Manually input your interests to slim down the pickin's, or give Omegle permission to use your Facebook Likes to find folks with similar tastes. Omegle's spy mode sets them apart from the pack; you can ask two strangers a question and watch them discuss it, or opt to discuss a question yourself.

When Chatroulette exploded in early 2010, it became the golden standard for anonymous video chatting. Okay, that's a little generous. But for a site initially run from a 17-year-old's bedroom in Moscow, it was certainly a sensation.

The site is still running strong today, with roughly twice as many users online than Omegle. Keep in mind that, unlike Airtime, this voyeur hotspot doesn't use an algorithm to detect X-rated content.

Tinychat is a video chat platform that introduces users to strangers with common interests.

The service requires that you create an account or login with Facebook. Once a member, you can browse the directory of chats in categories like comedy, music and gaming.

To be fair, though, the site's most popular chat rooms are teeenzon3, t33nheaven and teennlife. Going to go ahead and stamp this one with a big, fat NSFW.

ooVoo boasts power in numbers — this chat service lets you video chat with up to 12 friends. You can run ooVoo through Facebook, the web, or download the software to your computer or mobile device.

It's essentially Skype, with the added options to record a video call and send pre-recorded video messages.

If screensharing is your jam, go for Google+ or Skype; it's available on Oovoo, but only for a premium.

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Zocial Button Set: 72 CSS3 Buttons

The idea behind this project was to produce a consistent set of buttons that could be used for the range of social actions frequently taken in Web applications. These actions are often important goals for users, such as connecting third-party accounts or sharing content to third-party platforms, so their appearance has to be attractive and clear.

The standard buttons provided by third parties (such as Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud) vary in size, style and interactivity. A consistent button set could reduce a lot of that visual noise and inconsistency. Furthermore, having it in CSS format means that changing the text for certain actions would be a breeze for developers, and it also allows administrators of non-English websites to translate labels into their native languages.

The button set was designed from the beginning to require no extra markup, and the elements used are entirely the choice of the (semantically considerate) designer. All buttons are fully scalable and customizable, and they degrade gracefully on older browsers, although the aesthetics in IE 6 and 7 are admittedly inferior to image-based alternatives.

No raster images or sprites were used. Instead, vector icons were inserted using a custom font file, an @font-face rule and pseudo elements. For more information, John Hicks has an informative write-up on this technique.

This button set is free to use and extend, personally or commercially. No attribution is required.

100%-vector CSS3 buttons@font-face icons and custom font files72 services supportedButton and icon versions supportedEm sizing for full scalabilityGeneric primary and secondary action buttons for consistencyGraceful degradation on older browsers

Screenshots of each set are below. Or view a live demo.

The button set was designed with simplicity and semantics in mind. No unnecessary or extra markup is required, and button types are called through class names. Call the zocial.css file on your page (make sure the font files and the zocial.css file are in the same directory). Buttons can be displayed with the following markup:

The parent element is agnostic, so you may use ,

or

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Zocial Button Set: 72 CSS3 Buttons

The idea behind this project was to produce a consistent set of buttons that could be used for the range of social actions frequently taken in Web applications. These actions are often important goals for users, such as connecting third-party accounts or sharing content to third-party platforms, so their appearance has to be attractive and clear.

The standard buttons provided by third parties (such as Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud) vary in size, style and interactivity. A consistent button set could reduce a lot of that visual noise and inconsistency. Furthermore, having it in CSS format means that changing the text for certain actions would be a breeze for developers, and it also allows administrators of non-English websites to translate labels into their native languages.

The button set was designed from the beginning to require no extra markup, and the elements used are entirely the choice of the (semantically considerate) designer. All buttons are fully scalable and customizable, and they degrade gracefully on older browsers, although the aesthetics in IE 6 and 7 are admittedly inferior to image-based alternatives.

No raster images or sprites were used. Instead, vector icons were inserted using a custom font file, an @font-face rule and pseudo elements. For more information, John Hicks has an informative write-up on this technique.

This button set is free to use and extend, personally or commercially. No attribution is required.

100%-vector CSS3 buttons@font-face icons and custom font files72 services supportedButton and icon versions supportedEm sizing for full scalabilityGeneric primary and secondary action buttons for consistencyGraceful degradation on older browsers

Screenshots of each set are below. Or view a live demo.

The button set was designed with simplicity and semantics in mind. No unnecessary or extra markup is required, and button types are called through class names. Call the zocial.css file on your page (make sure the font files and the zocial.css file are in the same directory). Buttons can be displayed with the following markup:

The parent element is agnostic, so you may use ,

or

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Google Plus +1 Button Now Lets You Share Video Content With Your Circles

Google Plus +1 buttons have been popping up all over the web for the last several weeks–you might have noticed them here on ReelSEO. But up until today, the purpose and function of these buttons has been rather nebulous. What happens when you click +1? How is the “vote” used? We knew that it impacted the search results of your friends in some way, but that was about the extent of it. Today Google announced that they’re rolling out the ability to share directly with your Circles from the +1 button.

The Google Plus +1 buttons can now be used to share directly on your Stream, with whichever of your Circles you choose. Until now, the button hasn’t translated directly to a sharing action with your Plus connections. Despite that fact, the button has been implemented by more than a million publishers and has “crossed more than 2 billion views.”

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