Expanding Thanksgiving Pants & Pixar's Coco VR

By David Erickson | November 17, 2017

Beyond Social Media Show, Episode 210

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman and David Erickson discussed Stovetop’s Thanksgiving Dinner Pants; Disney Pixar’s Coco VR experience; the latest search ranking factors from SEMRush and Searchmetrics; Washington Post’s counterpoint AI; the New Zealand Coffin Club viral video; a pot subscription service; iPhone X’s fraudulent faces flaw; BoingBoing’s Net Neutrality popup alert; algorithmic threats to journalism; the MakeApp app; Greta Van Susteren’s sorry Sorry app; popping pimple fingernails; LG’s mosquito-repellant Phones; plus great new apps and stats you should know…and much, much more.

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Best Digital Cases

Stovetop’s Expanding Thanksgiving Dinner Pants

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Stovetop Stuffing created Thanksgiving Dinner Pants with an expanding waist so you don’t have to unbutton your pants after you stuff yourself. They sold out in minutes. Natch.

Search Ranking Factors For 2017

Insights from SEMRush and Searchmetrics presentations on the SEO Ranking Factors in 2017: What’s Important and What’s Not panel at SMX East.

SEO Ranking Factors in 2017: What’s Important and What’s Not

Washington Post Uses AI to Present Counterpoints to Opinions

The Post’s new “Counterpoint,” feature surfaces an Opinions article with a different perspective than what a user is currently reading. In these contentious times, other media would be wise to do the same.

The Washington Post Debuts New Counterpoint Feature for Opinions Content

Pixar’s Coco VR Featurette

Disney Pixar has launched Coco VR, the company’s first virtual reality experience and a promotion for the upcoming animated film Coco.

Disney Pixar takes first step into virtual reality with the skeleton world of Coco VR

New Zealand Coffin Club Goes Viral

Seniors in New Zealand get together to create and decorate their own coffins. The adorable musical video they made about their Club has now gone viral.

Kiwi Coffin Club Throws Glitter on the Idea of Dying

Pot In A Box

Oregon-based cannabis delivery company Briteside has created a hilarious video ad that parodies Big Pharma.

Cannabis ad brilliantly parodies prescription drug commercials

Net Neutrality Alert

BoingBoing is engaging its readers to advocate on behalf of Net Neutrality with a clever popup.

Cannabis ad brilliantly parodies prescription drug commercials

Worst Digital Cases

10 Year-Old Tricks Mother’s iPhoneX Face Recognition

Despite Apple’s claims that facial recognition is perfectly secure, a 10 year-old boy from Staten Island, NY, unlocked his mother’s iPhoneX in seconds. “It was funny at first,” his parents said. Other people posted similar experiences.

10-Year-Old Tricks Mother’s iPhone X Face ID

MakeOff

Some guy has created an app to help you see what women look like without makeup.

How Algorithms Threaten Journalism

In a Poynter Interview, Maciej Ceglowski, who runs a bookmarking site called Pinboard, says that “Together with climate change, this algorithmic takeover of the public sphere is the biggest news story of the early 21st century.”

Do Facebook and Google have control of their algorithms anymore? A sobering assessment and a warning

The Sorry Sorry App

Greta Van Susteren’s Sorry app was one big missed opportunity.

Manicure Has Pimples You Can Pop

Wait! What!? Yick! Blecch! Natasha Lee is an “award-winning nail professional” and British beauty blogger who posts nail art and “crafty bits” projects. This one was for Halloween, but it’s just gone viral. She has a 10 minute video on YouTube showing you how to do it. It’s had 233K views.

The most stomach-turning manicure. 😖 pic.twitter.com/HBfzy97E6S

— Insider (@thisisinsider) November 7, 2017

LG Releases Mosquito Repelling Phone

It’s only available in India, where disease-carrying mosquitoes are a major problem, but the science behind it is dubious at best

Shiny New Stuff

What distinguishes this coupon finding app from scores of others is that it was bought last year by IoT Broadband, LLC, a Denver-based technology and internet-of-things investment company, founded by former DISH Network Executive Vice President and Blockbuster President Michael Kelly.

Yowsa

Landing Page Optimization App

Test your landing page’s effectiveness on nine performance categories.

Landing Page Analyzer

Twitter Bot Colorizes B&W Photos for Free

It uses machine learning to do it.
You just need to Tweet your photo to @colorisebot and he’ll transform it in seconds.

Related
Geeks can find out how it happens here

.@colorisebot is amazing! It colorized a black and white photo of my beagle in less than 5 seconds! Well done @developius and @OliCallaghan_. 👏🏼 You have to try it! pic.twitter.com/aPRyjXPvGm

— Christopher Rizzo (@rizzotweets) November 16, 2017