I'm moving

Susan, Carlos, Ehi, and Aaron, your presentation back in October about Word Press was moving.     I have moved my blog to Word Press.


And after again perusing your handout, I am considering moving another site I have to WordPress.org.


So, thanks.  Feel free to stop by my new place......

fun ideas

What I like about the iPhone is all of the preposterous things that are promoted through its apps.  I like that they crack me up, I think “that’s preposterous” and then, it actually does work….sometimes.  Can we say ocarina?  But we all saw the wonders of an electronic wind instrument.  So I won’t repeat that. 

Today, I saw the Cry Translator.  It is an iPhone app that is supposed to listen to a baby’s cry, interpret it and then provide you with some resolution suggestions.  The website says that scientific tests have shown that it is 96% effective.  It is priced at $9.99 for a limited time and will soon be $29.99.  The news story that is linked above on the other hand has a mom and her baby to test the capabilities.  If you don’t have time to listen to it, here is the gist: the baby cries, the translator give a verdict, and the mom laughs and provides the real translation.  So, maybe it isn’t a hit.  But, hey, dare to dream. 

This dare-to-dream, think-out-of-the-box theme isn’t just limited to the iPhone, it is a concept that is to be applied to www business in general.  Today, I saw a lower cost option for having an interior designer decorate a room of your house.  For a percentage of the cost of having an interior designer come revamp a room, you can e-decorate.  This is done by e-mailing the designer a picture of your room along with an idea of the feel you want.  They can then send you pictures of the concepts they recommend with pictures, prices and links to your new couch and lamps along with the outline of where to place them.

Clever.   

iPhone v Android

So as we discussed the other day in class, everyone is chasing the market of the iPhone,  which is funny because I just listened to a story that said that it doesn’t actually have the lead in market share.  They neglected to mention what the market leader is….Blackberry maybe?  Anyway, the latest and greatest contender is the Android.  Now frankly the Android and the iPhone are pretty similar.  So, I’ll just focus on the differences. 

Added Pros of the iPhone

• It is cool.  Let’s face it.  That is a big deal….a really big deal.
• The iPhone has more gaming stuff available.

Added Pros of the Android

• The Droid has a superior camera. 
• Increased personalization (hmm, vague?  I thought so too, but haven’t come up with much on this yet)
• Able to multi-task

This was brought up in class and the question was asked, “Do you find that you miss the ability to multitask?”  For some reason I didn’t answer.  But I will now.  Yes.  Here is when:

·         When I want to use my All Recipes.com app to add items to my grocery list app.  I have to remember the ingredients, close the app, open the grocery app, add the groceries, close the grocery app, go back to the All Recipe app to get the ones I forgot, close it again, open the grocery app…very annoying.

·         Anytime I am using an app that requires a password and forget something outside the app, a similar process ensues except with the added frustration of logging in again. 

·         Pandora – This was covered in class.

• The deal breaker – The Droid comes with the Verizon network.  AT&T and Verizon just aren’t comparable.  The one thing that has been repeatedly thrown in my face ever since I switched to AT&T is all of the places where I no longer have service.  The most notable one is my home town….my home county in fact.  That is where my husband is right now….meaning that to talk to each other he uses the phones of friends and family that have Verizon while he is up there. 

So, for me, what it comes down to is that while I do really enjoy my iPhone (seriously addicting)….it is supposed to be first and foremost a phone.  It is 9:30 at night and I sure would like to chat my husband as he drives back to my folks place after having dinner with his sister.  Hmm, if only he had a device, a small phone, something pocket sized that could travel with him wherever he goes and didn’t require a landline.  His iPhone isn’t fulfilling that need right now.

Findability

In 2005, Peter Morville wrote a book called Ambient Findability.  In the first chapter, the author defines the term as “the quality of being locatable or navigable”.   He applies the term to the ability of a user to find and then navigate a website to find appropriate information.  The brew that is necessary to achieve findability has many ingredients.  SEO is the ability to show up at the top of a search engine.  Information Architecture is the focus on the structure of the website.  Accessibility ability to provide access to as many people as possible (for instance all browser types instead of just IE).  Usability is the ease of use.  Findability is the mesh of all of these.  It encompasses search engine optimization, navigation friendliness, branding, standards compliance, understanding seeking behavior, and so on.

iPhone Development articles

Click a topic for a related article.

• General iPhone Web page best practices
• Working with the viewport
• CSS for good iPhone Web pages
• The WebKit and using it's features for iPhone Web apps
• the iUI

ruminations on the presentation of a redhead

Our guest speaker in class this week, David Felfoldi of Sherpa, was well timed.  While I have really enjoyed all of the guest speakers that we have had, the timing of this related to our recent paper and plans for my site made this very relevant.  I have high hopes of actually retaining and applying this stuff.

Some of it was a review….or not a review, but a validation of the things that we had just spent time researching.  For instance, I really enjoyed the small tortoise illustration.  Not only was it funny, it was nice to see how effective on page content is at moving a page to the top of a search engine. 

Yet, he didn’t just leave it at “content is important” but went into details of pointing out that keywords should be packed into the first 200 words and emphasized with headings and such.  I had read references to using the heading tags combined with CSS for emphasis.  That one didn’t click for me until listening to this presentation. 

Furthermore, the discussion over keywords was really interesting.  The difference between a singular or plural search was quantified.  He also showed that there is a benefit to understanding the order of words when they are searched.  It really spotlighted that search engine optimization requires a great deal of understanding about the people looking for your site as well as some finesse. 

Also, he ended the evening with an informative tidbit that made me realize that I need to rethink a couple of links that I outlined in my midterm.  Apparently not all links to the site are good.  David Felfoldi pointed out that while Google weights links from sites that it sees as hearty, substantial, valid sites (like a link from Harvard) to be extra potent in validating your site, it works the other way too.  So, if your BFF has a lame site that even you won’t visit, maybe you should just let sleeping dogs lie.  

Hodge-podge of things I am pondering….

1-

Ever noticed that socially we often divide by race/lifestyle/income?  Well, it appears that this tendency is making the leap to the new online social networking.  While the decline of MySpace has been the topic of many a report/comment/blog, it may more accurately be called the divide.  While there are many reasons that this is interesting, one is that marketers may be completely overlooking MySpace as an advertising venue as their own social circles are not on MySpace.  Listen to the story.

2-

Did you know that those quizzes that you take on Facebook could be snagging your private information?  That Private setting on Facebook seems to make people feel safe.  Yet, the Facebook quiz is actually a program.  This program can be designed to scrape your profile while you are filling out the quiz.  Sneaky huh?  Well, Facebook does act to prevent and then undo damage done.  The article that informed me of this also debates whether or not this information is used for good or evil…..but I am suspicious of anything that needs to be done so surreptitiously. 

3-

So, on the topic of information floating out there…..have you heard of a site called nextmark.com?  You can buy pretty darn specific information there about oh-things-like-medical-problems-of-specific-people-and-their-e-mail-addresses.  Granted this wasn’t provided by doctors or hospitals.  It is information that people were either comfortable sharing or misguided into sharing through other sources.  But there it is for sale.  It makes me ponder my own leniencies in info sharing.  If you would like to listen to someone else ponder those tendencies, check this out.