This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

The most effective consultant/client relationships tend to morph into partnerships, in which the consultant is truly an extension of the internal team. However, elevating a relationship from “vendor” status to a meaningful collaboration isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Thankfully, there are some handy tools available that can help you establish an effective team.

If you’re using GChat, AOL or another instant-messaging service, it might be time to consider one of the “IM-ing for business” tools, such as Hipchat, Yammer or Chatter (part of Salesforce).

These services are particularly helpful for teams in distributed locations and/or working on multiple projects. Companies can create “rooms” in Hipchat, or “Groups” in Yammer, for various projects, departments or areas of focus, with privacy settings determining who can access the room. Only want to give certain people in the company access to product development details? Make that a private room. Want a room where anyone can offer suggestions? That’s doable, too.

By “@mentioning” someone in a discussion, it’s easy to pull the right people into a conversation. Supporting real-time collaboration and faster response times, users can be notified when they’re mentioned in a comment. Conversation histories are available and searchable, making it easy for people to get up to speed. The services are also available via desktop, mobile web and phone apps.

According to brand strategist Nick Westergaard, the opportunity to be “brought inside” a company is extremely valuable: “Chatter and Chatter groups provide a great way to feel in-sync despite unshared geography,” he explains. “Whether it’s sharing simple casual updates (“Jane’s leaving early,” “Cold out there today!”), or having the online equivalent of a quick 15-minute stand-up meeting, it offers a simple way to build a closer connection on a day-to-day basis. That’s invaluable in our business.”

Thinkfuse adds a collaborative group element to status reports. You may ask why you need another service if you’re already emailing status reports. The answer is that it’s not just about reporting specific tasks and to-do items to a small group of people. With Thinkfuse, status updates become another point for collaboration. Reports are sent to a larger group of people, giving everyone (or a specific cross-section) of people in the company an update. It helps to understand what everyone else is working on, identify opportunities to improve efficiencies or work together, and see how each person is part of the bigger picture. Thinkfuse lets managers create report templates, send due-date reminders and collect feedback and comments in one location, without having to worry about whether the right people are CCd on an email.

As a project management software service, Basecamp puts the emphasis on collaboration and communication in addition to getting tasks done. The dashboard provides an overview; project files are housed in one central location and deadlines are trackable on the master project calendar. Within the service, users can create benchmarks and milestones to ladder up to a larger project deadline.

Big Red Rooster, an interactive and creative agency, uses the Basecamp to share files and status updates with clients. Additionally, “Hosting the files in one location avoids confusion and ensures version control among all partners,” says Rebecca O’Dell, Big Red Rooster’s communication coordinator.

If you’re looking for a free collaboration tool — on a familiar platform — Facebook Groups can fill the need. Jason Falls has used Facebook Groups on multiple projects, including coordinating a team of writers for his blog, SocialMediaExplorer.com.

“I use Facebook Groups to communicate and have group discussions with my team of 12 blog authors. The group helps us stay connected and aware of what each other might be working on, thinking and the like,” Falls says. “I hate email threads and back-and-forth in the inbox. Threaded discussions in a group takes that annoyance away.”

Facebook Groups can be open, closed or secret. The latter two are preferred for internal communication, as it makes it easier for team members to be added and request to join the group.

As PR consultant Shonali Burke discovered, Facebook Groups created an additional layer of accountability with clients. For example, Burke established a Facebook Group to facilitate communication between “champions” for a non-profit project she was leading.

“Having our client as part of our group showed her in real-time how we were working and communicating with the champions. It added to the effectiveness of our ‘offline’ communications, such as weekly calls, since we wouldn’t have to go over items we’d already discussed in the group to any great extent,” she says. “And it added transparency to our work, which is always a good thing.”

Put another way, increased collaboration improves efficiencies, meaning agencies can spend less time revising drafts and more time implementing. As Westergaard notes, “We share drafts and concepts and are able to dramatically cut down on notes and iterations, as it’s easier to get on the same page faster.”

What collaboration tools are you using to improve communication between your company and its consultants?

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisegagne

More About: collaboration, communication, coworking, features, mashable, open forum, Small Business

Microsoft could unveil a stand-alone Skype application for Windows Phone as soon as this month's Mobile Phone Congress, and Skype is expected to be standard on the mobile operating system when the company launches Windows Phone 8.

Skype was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 and a Skype client for Windows Phone had been promised by the end of last year. So far, Microsoft and its Skype unit have been quiet about the integration, but the Verge is reporting that company employees can now download a test version of Skype from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Meanwhile, an internal Microsoft video that had been intended for executives at Nokia, is fueling more speculation about what features will be added to Windows Phone 8. Known by the codename Apollo, Windows Phone 8 is expected to be released sometime after the release of the Tango operating system, which is also expected at the Mobile Phone Congress.

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The video, obtained by the smartphone review site PocketNow, will have better integration with Microsoft desktop clients which should allow developers to reuse much of their code. While Windows Phone has been mostly lauded by crtics, a chief complaint has been a lack of apps.

Windows Phone 8 is also being upgraded to work on a wider range of hardware, and will include support for NFC radios.

Microsoft also said it expects 100,000 apps to be available for Windows Phone by the time Apollo is launched, which is currently rumored to be sometime in the fourth quarter.

"Overall, we're looking at a lot of changes and additions here, all of which seem designed to either bring Windows Phone in line with other platforms, feature-wise, or make it more closely identical to the desktop version of Windows," Evan Blass wrote on PocketNow. "It's probably safe to say that the jump from Mango/Tango to Apollo will be nearly as significant as the transition from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone, and this preview certainly gives us a lot to look forward to."

Brikki is een nieuw tekenfiguur voor kinderen, maar dan helemaal van deze tijd: sociaal, en gebaseerd op crowdsourcing en creative commons. Ingmar de Lange vertelt over de site en de app van Brikki. Lees meer

Het verkopen van je huis is tegenwoordig niet eenvoudig. Niet zelden hoor je over een vriend, familielid of kennis die zijn of haar huis maar niet verkocht krijgt. Ook een collega van Bastiaan Berends (medewerker PXL) had dit probleem. Een aantal van zijn collega’s besloot daarom om samen te onderzoeken in hoeverre social media kunnen bijdragen aan het vinden van een koper voor je huis. Ik besloot op mijn beurt om hen te volgen in hun zoektocht. Lees meer

The New York Giants official website accidentally announced the winner of Super Bowl XLVI more than 24 hours before Sunday’s big game even started, by the look of images floating around the web.

The error was immortalized Saturday in this TwitPic screenshot (above), which Jeff Frias posted to Twitter. No signs of the mistake are left on the team’s site other than a reported link that leads to the image below:

The Giants have yet to publicly confirm whether this whammy is real or the handy-work of a prankster.

While online blunders have cost people their jobs in the past, this misstep — if real — shows that the Giants organization is unsurprisingly ready to financially capitalize on a possible win.

The tweeted image displays championship garb traditionally sold after national sporting contests. Giants quarterback Eli Manning and three other players are cropped into the image along with the Super Bowl’s most-coveted prize, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The image is emblazoned with these words in all caps: “The Giants are Super Bowl champions!”

SEE ALSO: Super Bowl 2012 By the Numbers | How to Watch the Super Bowl Online

The Feb. 5 broadcast of the Giants vs. New England Patriots game kicks off at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be followed by many post-game breakdowns of the games and commercials. One Super Bowl post-game analysis will occur within an NBC-backed Google+ Hangout. Participants will dissect the commercials, which this year cost $3.5 million each.

Did you notice the premature winner’s announcement before it was taken down? Sound off below.

Online whammies in the sports world are not uncommon. Here are a few recent memorable digital mistakes.

After a tsunami devastated Japan this March, Cappie Pondexter of the WNBA's New York Liberty tweeted, "What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes." Later she continued hypothesizing with this tweet: "u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so you can't expect anything less." Predictably, Pondexter's tweets sparked a strong backlash, and she eventually took to Twitter again, this time to apologize (left).

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More About: Entertainment, football, sports, Super Bowl, trending

If Internet memes were turned into movies, their promotional posters might resemble the designs London-based Stefan van Zoggel conjured up.

“I took the context of the usually short-lived internet memes and virals, and translated that to simple film poster designs,” says van Zoggel on his Meme Movie Posters blog.

He has designed 29 meme-inspired posters so far. Below, you’ll find posters about Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” planking, Nyan Cat, Double Rainbow, Keyboard Cat, Shake Weight and a slew of other memes.

SEE ALSO: 10 Best Memes of 2011 | Hey Girl, Here Are Foursquare Ryan Gosling Memes

Which designs are your favorite of the bunch? Which new memes should inspire his future designs?

I would like to see movie posters about the Occupy Wall Street movement’s Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow‘s Tebowing and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s sweater vests.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: art, memes, Movies, trending

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
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Blogger @fatmumslim (4500+ followers) started the #febphotoaday trend on Twitter by creating a "photo challenge" where Twitter users share a picture on every day in February, displaying the subjects mentioned on this image. She did the same thing in January, when #janphotoaday was trending throughout the month.

Click here to view this gallery.

We’ve sifted through tens of millions of pictures posted on Twitter during the week and narrowed them down to the 10 most popular, and here they are.

Using a special algorithm developed by our partners/wizards at social media search engine Skylines, we’ve taken the most popular hash tags and found the most widely shared pictures within.

There weren’t a tremendous amount of big events going on this week, so our astute curators made a special effort to take the most amusing and interesting pictures and subjects that resided in the top 100. Even so, there were slim pickings this week. C’mon Twitter users, you can do better than that — share some blockbuster pics next week!

If you’d like to know more about the selection process, see the full results from Skylines.

If you missed them, here are last week’s Top 10 Twitter Pics.

More About: Skylines, Top 10 Twitter Pics, trending, Twitter

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
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The 54th Grammy Awards ceremony is only eight days away and the Recording Academy is kicking off the next phase of its digital and social campaign. Under the heading of “We Are Music” the Academy and its partners are harnessing the power of social, mobile and digital to make the award show more modern than ever.

The Recording Academy made the decision to invest in social and digital media several years ago (you can read Mashable’s past coverage of the 2010 and 2011 campaigns) and the organization and its awards show are now seeing the dividends. Big time. The latest trends in social TV and second screen experiences are in direct alignment with the road Grammy has been traveling for years.

We spoke with Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer of the Recording Academy, and he told us the strategy around the 2012 Grammys was to put mobile and digital at the forefront of the project. That means the campaign and the show itself were designed with the digital and mobile attributes in mind from its inception, not tacked on at the end. As someone who has been beating the drum of making social and digital a part of the creation process from beginning to end, this is great to see.

As in years past, the cornerstone of the digital Grammy experience is around Grammy Live. Grammy Live is a three-day webcast of special Grammy events, red carpets and parties, designed to bring fans behind the scenes and close to all the action.

Although CBS (Grammy’s broadcasting partner) doesn’t stream the awards themselves online, Grammy Live is available as a second screen experience during the event, giving additional insight and tidbits into what’s happening, views from the crowd and access to backstage areas.

As Peter Anton, executive producer of Grammy Live pointed out in our conversation, Grammy Live was actually the first major second screen experience designed around an award show — and this was before the iPad!

Of course, now that the iPad is here, it makes sense to extend the Grammy Live experience to other devices. In addition to viewing the experience at Grammy.com, users can also interact with the experience in the Grammy Live app for iOS [iTunes link].

This year, Greene told us, the Recording Academy worked hard to make the Grammy Live app a perfect extension of the website itself. CBS was also heavily involved this year, both in helping craft the app and in giving Grammy Live official on-air callouts and integration.

Not only does the Grammy Live app give users access to the photos, videos and articles available at Grammy.com, it also features Grammy trivia, the ability to guess who will win at the 54th Grammy Awards and the ability to listen to a streaming radio station of Grammy nominees. One of my favorite features of the app is that it also includes a database of past winners, as well as nominees for the 2012 awards. During the show on Feb. 12, those listings will be updated in real time.

The app also lets users browse tweets from various Grammy accounts and hashtags, and of course, access the full Grammy Awards experience before and during the show itself. The app is optimized for iPhone and iPad, and is one of the best apps we’ve seen for an awards show.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Recording Academy teamed up with TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles for the awards show campaign. The team created a robust campaign with print, outdoor, digital, mobile and television components centered around the theme of “We Are Music.”

The genesis of the campaign was formed around the emotions and social experiences that music brings out in us all. The agency TBWA\Chiat\Day wanted to capture the way music moves us as humans and wanted a way to help visualize that emotive experience.

TBWA\Chiat\Day always likes to push the technical boundaries in the digital aspects of its campaigns, and this year was no different. The centerpiece is a microsite that lives at Wearemusic.grammy.com. This site was developed using cutting-edge web technologies (in this case, Flash 11 Stage 3D) to create robust real-time 3D visualizations that are modified based on what music is playing in the background.

Users can select their own mix of songs (powered using Rdio‘s library API) and add in their own photographs to create their own unique visualizations. Users can then share these visualizations with others using Facebook or Twitter. The effect is insanely cool and I encourage you all to visit the site and see it for yourself.

Creating a robust and cutting-edge desktop experience was important, but the agency also wanted to have a powerful mobile component. Enter the We Are Music iPhone app [iTunes link]. This app helps bring the visualized experience to mobile devices.

In the mobile app, a user’s own music library is used to power the visualizations. Users can also provide their own photos or take one within the app. The app then creates customized experiences based on the music, and also uses the camera flash on the iPhone 4 and 4S to create special pulsing experiences (you can shut this off if you don’t like it). Up to 15 users on the same WiFi or Bluetooth network can even share their experiences with one another.

It’s a super cool app and again, it’s cutting edge. The technology team relied on some of the newest features in iOS 5 to take advantage of these tools. What I like about this app — as with the Music Mapper from the 53rd Grammy Awards, is that the app and microsite can still be enticing and fun even outside the context of the awards show.

The TV spots TBWA/Chiat/Day crafted around the campaign have already made the rounds on YouTube. The Grammy artists profiled in this campaign include Adele, Foo Fighters and Bon Iver. All the spots have style, but the ad with Skrillex is notable because they outfitted the artist in a motion-capture suit to get the liquid movement effect.

Check it out:

Of course, no modern digital campaign strategy would be complete without a big focus on social media. For the 54th Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy is putting Grammy everywhere and engaging with the community of music fans across social platforms.

In addition to the Grammys Facebook Page @TheGrammys Twitter account, the Grammys are also active on:

• Instagram — Photo contests were held for the first month of the campaign
• Tumblr — The Grammy team held a contest asking users to blog about what artists have influenced them.
• Foursquare — This profile includes historical tips about venues that have hosted the Grammys as well as locations of studios where Grammy Winning albums were recorded.
• GetGlue — GetGlue is offering exclusive stickers not just for checking into the awards, but for checking in to the artists nominated for the Big Four awards.
• YouTube
• Google+

What made me really excited, however, was to see how The Grammys embraced digital music services. Grammy and Pepsi teamed up to create a custom Pandora station that includes Best New Artist videos and Grammy winners and nominees in 12 different genres. Next week, Grammy will also roll out its official Grammy Spotify app that will let users listen to all past Grammy winners in four major categories. The Spotify app will get more categories in the months ahead.

What this strong commitment says to us is that the Grammy Awards aren’t playing around with social, the team gets it.

Mashable will be at the Grammy Awards live on Feb. 12, 2012 and covering the digital action from the ground. Let us know what you think of the digital campaign for the 54th Grammy Awards in the comments.

More About: 54th Grammy Awards, apps, grammy awards, grammys

Super Bowl 2012 is blitzing us like a crazed linebacker, coming up in a matter of hours, and the numbers are stacking up quickly. It’s a weekend of superlatives, with astonishing numbers swirling around those brave warriors on the field.

In the Super Bowl, everything is larger than life. Instead of a dozen TV cameras for normal football game broadcasts, NBC rolls out 57 cameras. Instead of betting a couple of bucks on the game, people bet hundreds. And instead of eating a couple of chicken wings, an entire nation gangs up to eat 1.25 billion of them in one day.

Want more? We have numbers — a long list of them, taking into account the technology of the big game, the behavior of a nation and the world during the contest, the security necessary to keep everyone safe, the enormous amounts of money changing hands and lots more.

So sit back and prepare yourself for a gigantic triviafest, giving you plenty of ammunition to be the Super Bowl know-it-all when the game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Warning: Recite these numbers at your own risk.

• $10 billion: to be gambled on Super Bowl XLVI internationally, expected to be the most bet-upon game in Super Bowl history, according to ESPN
• 1.25 billion: chicken wings eaten Super Bowl weekend
• $720 million: construction cost of the Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium, built in hopes of hosting a Super Bowl
• 111 million: last year’s average U.S. TV audience, the largest in U.S. TV history. It could hit 113 million viewers this year, according to an unscientific poll by MediaLife
• $4 million: price of the most-expensive advertisement, according to Reuters
• $3.5 million: for a 30-second ad, on average, up from $3 million last year
• 68,000: number of seats in Lucas Oil Stadium for Super Bowl XLVI
• $3,985: Average price paid for one Super Bowl 2012 ticket
• 3,000: hours of video content to be acquired, encoded and transported by NBC
• 475: crew members NBC will employ for the pre-game and game productions
• 180: countries and territories in which Super Bowl XLVI will air
• 77%: accuracy of the stock market predictor that if the NFC team (Giants) wins the Super Bowl, the market will rise for the year, or drop if the AFC team (Patriots) wins
• 75: cameras installed in Indianapolis in and around Lucas Oil Stadium for Super Bowl security, according to Public Intelligence
• 70: national network ads NBC will air around this year’s game, sold out shortly after Thanksgiving weekend, according to Reuters
• 60: miles of cable for NBC’s cameras and microphones
• 57: cameras NBC will deploy for the broadcast, including the pre- and post-game shows
• 50%: price rise of a Super Bowl commercial in the last 10 years
• 47%: of Super Bowl viewers will check their smartphones up to 10 times or more during the game, according to a survey by Velti.
• 46: It’s the 46th Super Bowl (XLVI)
• 40: cameras NBC will devote to game coverage
• 29: Trucks and trailers NBC will use for the broadcast
• 25: languages spoken on the international broadcasts
• 12: number of Super Bowl appearances for Giants and Patriots combined
• 6: channels of DTS Neural Surround 5.1 technology integrated into the HD broadcast
• 5: Super Bowls for New England coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady
• 4: Hi-Motion II super ultra-motion cameras, shooting at 1000fps at a resolution of 1080p
• 3: $0.03 — average cost to advertisers per viewer for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl
• 2: dimensions — broadcast will be in 2D HDTV, no 3D HDTV broadcast this year.
• 1: winner. Will it be the Patriots or the Giants?

More About: Super Bowl, Super Bowl 2012, Super Bowl XLVI, trending, TV, Video

Were you too busy this week to read everything on Mashable? Maybe you’ve been planning your Super Bowl party, or maybe you were figuring out how to buy a piece of Facebook (don’t get your hopes up). For whatever reason you missed our digital media resources this week, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered with our weekly features roundup.

Take a look at what you missed: We have a list of users rocking Pinterest, a rundown of the presidential candidates’ stances on tech issues and tips for what to do if your website gets hacked. You’ll find YouTube‘s most-shared ads for January, unique urban farming projects and ways to update your Facebook Timeline without annoying all of your friends. We even have a real-life Facebook wall at our New York headquarters!

Take this weekend to relax, watch some football and use this list to catch up on our best resources in no time.

• Digital Marketing: 7 Tips for Generating Fresh Ideas
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• The Future of Food: 11 Unique Urban Farming Projects
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• What Are the Presidential Candidates’ Stances on Important Tech Issues?
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• Mashable’s Real-Life Facebook Wall is Here
  Mashable‘s real-life Facebook wall can now be seen in our New York City headquarters.
• Facebook IPO: The Complete Guide
  Does the complexity of Facebook’s IPO filing have you down? Look no further than our comprehensive guide to the big event.

• 21 Must-Follow Pinterest Users
  Scoot through our gallery to discover some of the most popular curators on Pinterest, the hottest social circuit on the web today.
• 10 Hysterical Political Parodies on Twitter
  There are countless parody accounts on Twitter, but the most entertaining may be the political parodies of public officials around the world.
• Meme Machine: Top 5 Viral Hits of the Week
  Here are the top 5 Meme Machine hits, looking at the five most hilarious viral topics spreading across the web this week.
• How to See When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook
  Would you like to know when someone “unfriends” you on Facebook? We’ve found a tool to help.
• How to Fill Out Facebook Timeline Without Annoying Your Friends
  Some users don’t want to broadcast every life event they add to their new Timeline. Here are some tips for quietly completing your profile without annoying your social network.
• Top Twitter Photos from the 2012 Presidential Campaign
  Republican Presidential candidates have documented their journeys to the Florida primary with photos posted on Twitter and Instagram.
• 20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week [CHART]
  Which TV shows generated the most buzz on social networks this week?
• 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook
  Facebook is now valued at $100 billion. What else in the world is worth that kind of money? We found 10 incredible examples.
• 10 Pro Tips for Writers Using Social Media
  Six well-known writers, who are experts in personal branding, share how to use social media to push yourself forward in the writing industry.
• How to Get a Pinterest Invite
  Here are some tips for getting a Pinterest invite. We’re offering to give away some of our own, too.
• How Higher Education Uses Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
  As social media becomes more integral to students’ lives, educational institutions are finally catching on, and catching up. Here’s how colleges and universities are leveraging social in the classroom and the recruiting office.
• 7 Tips for Planning a Wedding on Pinterest
  Here are 7 simple but effective tips for planing a wedding on Pinterest, from which boards to create and whom to follow, to leveraging your findings while you shop.

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable‘s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

• How To Avoid Hiring The Wrong Person For Your Startup
  Looking to fill a gap in your startup team? Make sure you’re not hiring the wrong person with these five quick tips.
• 5 Privacy Tips for Location-Based Services
  LBS-based businesses that want to avoid becoming future legal or media targets need to identify appropriate privacy updates.
• 6 Ways to Give Your App a Leg Up on the Competition
  How can you ensure your app gets time in the spotlight and the attention it deserves? Try these six tips.
• 4 Sales Tips for Enterprise Software Startups
  If your startup sells enterprise software, today’s environment can be tough. Try these four tips to learn from and acquire more customers.
• YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in January [VIDEOS]
  From last year’s Super Bowl to the upcoming big game, here are the 20 most-shared ads from January, 2012.
• How to Make Your Company More Social
  Take advantage of the opportunity to foster your company’s social media skills and community in general. Learn how to get everyone on board.
• What to Do When Your Website Gets Hacked
  Every organization is now in the business of protecting its own data. If you are targeted by hackers, there are a few steps you can take the mitigate the damage.
• Facebook IPO: How Will the Social Network Be Affected? [POLL]
  After the $5 billion Facebook IPO, we want to know how you think the social network will be affected.
• Why Context Is King in the Future of Digital Marketing
  Digital marketers must pay attention to the context in which they are reaching consumers if they have any hope of keeping up in the digital ad age.

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable‘s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

• 4 Inspiring Examples of Digital Storytelling
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• 10 Tips and Tricks for the Facebook iPhone App
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• The 10 Most Blatant Design Ripoffs in Social Media
  In social media, original web design is hard to come by, but some sites are bigger copycats than others. Here are the 10 worst offenders.
• How to Prepare Your Social Game for Massive Growth
  Social games, especially those on Facebook, can grow like wildfire. Make sure your data architecture is prepared for the traffic surge.
• iPhone 4 Voice Control: Commands, Tips and Tricks
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• 8 Things You Should Know Before Building a Mobile App
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• Tablet History: 14 Devices That Laid the Groundwork for the iPad
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• 5 iPhone Twitter Apps that Do More Than Just Tweet
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• How Tech Can Prepare You for Extreme Weather
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For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable‘s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, johnwoodcock.