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Twitter is being used by high school teachers to force concise writing in students.

Kellogg's is using a "Tweet shop" in London's Soho to promote its new product, Cracker Crisps. The idea is customers "pay" for a packet by tweeting a message about the snack to their friends and followers. Customers sample their wares in a "try before you buy" area and write their Twitter review. The Special K representatives then check every customer's tweet before handing over a 60p packet of crisps.

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

"Medium, the new self-publishing platform from two of Twitter's co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, promises to eliminate the need for bloggers to also be marketers. "We want to help the best ideas and stories have the biggest possible impact," Williams said in an email. "For the vast majority of people, Medium will have a higher return-on-investment for writing than publishing one's own blog.""

people going to social for writing reviews and looking for reviews

Could be interesting to write about for Pulse. We'll see how this stacks up against the Monopoly contest in terms of buzz.

Since launching its mobile apps in October, mobile accounts for 25 percent of Fab orders on a daily basis. What's more, iPhone members purchase at twice the rate of web members and iPad members purchase at more than four times the rate of web members, Goldberg writes. In November 2011, nearly half of Fab's traffic came via its daily emails to members. However, in January 2012, direct visits overtook email-driven visits. Goldberg attributes the rise in direct traffic to: mobile visits; an increase in direct visits from members who don't want to wait around for the daily Fab emails that come out each day at 11 a.m. ET; and a tipping point in general awareness after Fab reached 2 million members.

Dragon Drive lets drivers listen, write, edit, and respond to both text messages and emails using only their voice and Nuance is also planning to add additional functionality to the service, including the ability to control music playback and search for directions. And since BMW is also one of the companies that will be supporting the upcoming Eyes Free feature for Apple's Siri, new BMW owners should have plenty of options when it comes to voice control.

fans create the story in real-time.

eHarmony's FB app will write love letters in calligraphy to send love letters

A new survey by mobile ad network Greystripe suggests mobile shoppers are more likely to evangelize brands or products than people who prefer to make purchases in physical stores. The study found almost half (49%) of mobile shoppers routinely writing reviews about their product experiences, compared to only 31% of their traditional counterparts.   But if a mobile shopper is unhappy with a purchase, that also indicates they are more likely to complain about it online. The study showed that mobile shoppers are more likely (31%) to visit a brand's Web site or app first when looking for product information than in-store shoppers (24%).

Smartphones are on a fast track to become the primary device for both creating and consuming digital content. According to the Pew Internet for the American Life Project, already a full 31% of Americans who own internet-capable phones browse the web primarily from their phones. These numbers are actually higher in emerging markets. What's more, there are at least three other factors at work here. First, images are global. They eschew all language and cultural boundaries. Photography is the only true universal medium. Nothing comes close. Second, images are distributable. The bandwidth required to transmit photos is minimal, yet the opportunities for quick, creative expression are plentiful. As of this writing, Apple's App Store alone has over 10,000 iPhone apps in its photo category -- many of them for editing. Photoshopping has been democratized. Finally, images are digestible. You can glance at a picture for as short or as long as you want. Photos are a non-linear, shared consumption experience. The same can't be said for video or even text.

It may seem like an odd market to tackle, but even among young kids, tablet use is growing. A Nielsen study from earlier this year found that 70 percent of children aged 12 and under who live in a household with a tablet use said tablet. At the same time, just 15 percent were said to have used them for communicating with friends and family. That low number could provide a significant opportunity, should the right product arrive that manages to make communication functions more appealing to the tween and under 12 set.

To show just how prevalent brand images are across the web, Stipple built an image calculator for Ad Age readers at stipple.com/imageaudience. Just input a brand's URL to see how widespread its images are. for BMW, for example, 405 million hits come up (at this writing) in just the past seven days. Stipple falls into the same space as ThingLink and Luminate, which both attach a commerce element to images. The idea of image-based commerce has marketers excited about services like Pinterest and The Fancy. But in order to capitalize on this opportunity, sellers need a system to assert some degree of control - a way to keep the information associated with their products consistent across the web.

You know things have gone irretrievably to shit when fellow AOL employees write public articles on what a douche you are. Hopefully none of us will deteriorate to this point (although I think it's possible for me to get there;-).

TouchTools is a user interface that allows the user to manipulate tools on a touch screen as you would normally in the real world. As opposed to simply typing, tapping and swiping, as we do on the devices many of us have at present, this new idea lets you write as if you were holding a pen, erase as if you were holding a rubber and even measure as if you were holding a measuring tape.