clickz An in-depth look at the sneaker brand's campaign, including a FunnyOrDie.com video that features vulgarity rarely seen or heard in marketing. K-Swiss's video is getting big-time hits, and its Facebook presence has increased 7X.

File this one under “only in Japan”: A beach town near Tokyo has begun catering to a specific segment of young men, ones who play the game Love Plus and have a strong desire to take their virtual “girlfriends” from this game on a romantic holiday in the real world. Love Plus is a typical dating sim game in which the protagonist, a high school boy, finds himself in a relationship with a young woman. He must work to maintain the relationship. Players can become deeply involved and engaged (no pun intended) with their virtual girlfriends, to the point that one young man even married his in a Tokyo ceremony last year. The most recent version of the game, which came out June 24, also includes a “field trip,” created in partnership with the seaside town Atami. In 13 locations around the town, players can find 2D barcodes to scan and call up images of the young women in the game. The girls wear different clothing from their ...

clickz An anti-Digg rebellion has cost the pro-marijuana group its ad freedom.

Boasting a star-studded roster of investors, New York-based startup Chartbeat has raised a $3 million Series A. The cash infusion is led by Index Ventures and rounded out by the likes of Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Jason Calacanis, Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital and Betaworks. Betaworks is the NYC-based startup incubator and investment firm where Chartbeat, Bit.ly and a few others got their start; the firm currently holds shares in Twitter , Groupon , Tumblr and a slew of other startups in the social, real-time and structured data spaces. Chartbeat’s team said in a statement that they chose to accept funding from Index because they believe that firm is uniquely positioned to help the company with international expansion. “Chartbeat is already kicking ass on major sites from Denmark (Ekstrabladet) to India (Times of India) to South Africa (News24)… and we want to expand on that,” it said. The startup, which currently counts ...

Here at Mashable, we’ve been putting the iPhone 4 through its paces, and have come up with some handy tips and tricks that can help you get more out of your Apple-flavored mobile. We’ve covered all kinds of basics, like making search results more relevant, creating shortcuts for your favorite websites, better organizing your apps, and making the most of Maps. And, as ever, if you’ve got suggestions for more iPhone magic not covered here or in our previous Keyboard Shortcuts post, you know we want to hear them in the comments below. 1. Change the Spotlight Search Result Order The iPhone’s Spotlight Search functionality is a great improvement from early incarnations, but you can make it even more relevant to you just by tweaking the settings. In the “Settings” menu, go to “General,” then select “Spotlight Search.” You are then presented with a list of categories. By touching the three bar ...

In conjunction with the Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit , we are proud to be working with the United Nations Foundation and 92nd Street Y to host the first ever UN Week Digital Media Lounge . The conversation about the world?s biggest challenges no longer belongs to a small set of voices — it is a global conversation with an increasingly online pulse. As the world?s leaders convene in New York, the UN Week Digital Media Lounge offers a dedicated venue that is completely wired and accessible to today?s top online voices and influential bloggers, bringing the conversations from this historic UN Summit out of the halls of the UN and into 92nd Street Y, where digital media will deliver it to the world. From September 21-24, 92Y will be a place for bloggers to have exclusive in-person access to experts on issues like poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDs, women?s health and climate change. A comprehensive agenda will give bloggers the chance to interact wit ...

Tonight, U.S. President Barack Obama is slated to address America from the Oval Office via a live stream on YouTube, a speech during which he is expected to announce the end of the U.S. combat role in Iraq. Before you check out the live stream tonight at 8 p.m. EST, YouTube is offering you the opportunity to ask the White House follow-up questions via its Moderator function. The speech will also be stored on YouTube’s CitizenTube , should you happen to miss it tonight. Check out the above video from the YouTube Blog for more info. This isn’t the first time a speech has been streamed live from the Oval Office. A few months ago, President Obama spoke to the American public with regard to the Gulf oil spill . YouTube also allowed viewers to submit questions to the president during the State of the Union Address , which he later answered on the video-sharing site. As more and more of these events occur online, one can only imagine the historical archi ...

If your Twitter page looks different, don’t freak out; Twitter is just temporarily disabling the new “Who to Follow” feature. On the Twitter Status blog, Twitter notes that it has “temporarily turned off the … feature” and that it will be “restored as soon as possible.” Twitter rolled out “Who to Follow” last month as a way to give users suggestions for other users to follow. These suggestions are based on things like, the people you follow, the people they follow and other factors. Since the feature was launched, it has been plagued by bugs; many of us at Mashable have found that it always produces the same recommendations. Twitter notes in the status update that the feature has also been recommending users you already follow (a feature I have noticed myself) and that the company is looking into fixing that issue. We’ll let you know when “Who to Follow” returns. Have you ...

Following similar moves by Amazon and Barnes & Noble , Borders has announced that it will also be cutting the prices on some of its e-readers. Beginning Wednesday, September 1, the prices of the Kobo e-reader and the Aluratek Libre eBook Pro will drop from $149.99 to $129.99 and from $119.99 to $99.99, respectively. The Kobo e-reader will now be $10 less than the new Amazon Kindle (but note that while the Kindle has Wi-Fi, the Kobo reader does not), making it one of the most affordable e-ink e-readers on the market. The already budget friendly Libre Pro has now hit that elusive $99.99 price point. Earlier this month, Copia announced its own plans to bring a $99 e-reader to market, but the Libre Pro is available now. In terms of features and connectivity, neither device can match power with the Kindle or Nook ; these are frills-free e-readers for the budget-conscious or for households that want a secondary e-reader. Later this fall, Border ...

Do you set your alarm to harvest your crops? Do you value Farm Cash over your own country’s currency? Is your other vehicle a tractor? Then you’re going to love this list! You know where we’re going with this — FarmVille is a phenomenally popular social game boasting more “virtual farms” than the number of real ones in the entire United States and has more than 80 million users. So, beyond the promotional 7-11 items and Green Giant Fresh produce that took FarmVille into the real world, we’ve found five more FarmVille-themed accessories perfect for the agriculturally-addicted. Have a look through the gallery now and let us know in the comments which ones you’d trade a pink cow for… 1. Internet Farmer Tee This tee pokes fun at the addicted “Internet farmer” with a modern twist on the “farmer’s tan” — a traditional badge of agricultural honor [[[tanned for ...