Link Digest V1.5
Brick & Mobile summarizes key points from Google’s mobile playbook. In short, people use their smartphone to do local searches a lot, and if they are given a good mobile experience they will show up at your door often.
Social media is serious business. Hootsuite’s founder Ryan Holmes writes about the need for social media teams and methods for avoiding embarrassing social media accidents (using Hootsuite for instance). Included is a quote from the director of new media from the LA Kings: ”It’s (social media) a customer service tool, it’s a PR tool, it’s a sales tool. Even the guy who does the music during games uses Twitter to get song requests and feedback.” – from The Huffington Post
Macworld shows us some nifty iPad keyboard tricks.
I always try to reduce the amount of paper in my life albeit not entirely successfully yet. Macstories writes a short review of The MacSparky Paperless Field Guide available on the iBookstore.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming more and more common in the corporate environment. Absolute Software from Vancouver announces Absolute Manage 6.1 including Mobile Application Management tools for IT control of silent application installation and deletion. – from Techvibes
For those of you out there with kids, Smart Apps for Kids has a nice list of free apps.
Google Chrome may have finally surpassed IE as the most used browser in the world. via The Next Web
Read MoreLink Digest V1.4
Excellent guides to digital marketing from Kissmetrics.
Great post from Brick&Mobile about how poorly the restaurant industry has taken to mobile. Ten years ago lots of independent restaurants got burned paying for fancy but not particularly useful flash websites with no tools to measure their ROI. Now the with digital marketing metrics becoming mature and a number of affordable tools to create mobile sites (Mobify, Dudamobile, Brick&Mobile) there is no real excuse for not having a mobile presence; however a study from Restaurant Sciences indicated that 95% of the independent restaurants in their wide ranging survey in the US did not have a mobile optimized website, nor did 1/8 of franchised restaurants. With potential diners checking out ratings from Yelp, Urbanspoon, Google and others on their mobile phones to make their eating out decisions, can they afford to not have a good mobile site to help sell to their potential customers?
Building an app Apprentice style (BBC version). I think we can all relate to this.
An in-detail look at the cross-platform solutions offered by Titanium and PhoneGap from a contributor to Titanium.
Facebook is going to be launching an App Center to curate and promote applications for the web, iOS and Android with Facebook integration in the coming weeks. (BGR)
Foursquare has done a great job building out a location services product, but now they are trying to figure out how to monetize their service. One way will now be offering sponsored personalized offerings to their users. (GigaOM)
Wired shows us an insider view of A/B testing using the IGN website as the guinea pig. (Wired)
Techcrunch set off a firestorm of controversy when they posted an image of a pile of Android handsets and tables that Animoca uses for QC (apparently they test against 400 devices). Animoca wrote a follow up post with their take in which they say that for them this amount of testing is worth it. Opensignalmaps published data on the 600,00+ Android devices which have downloaded their app and present some interesting graphics about the variety of devices and screen resolutions. The Samsung Galaxy SII was the most popular, making up about 10% of their total downloads so make sure your Android application works on that phone at least!
Be careful when parting with your Android devices. Your data might still be there even if you think it’s been wiped clean. (Techvibes)
Read MoreFitness Pro
One of my favorite activities is to head to the gym, and since I’m a strong believer that everything falls into the saying “there’s an app for that,” I thought I would try to find the best free one. Their are so many fitness applications available, some that focus on preset routines, others nutrition and so on. With so many to choose from which is best? Fitness goals are specific to each individual, the app I chose to discuss is best for me.
I was looking for an application where I could keep a database of exercises I liked, find new exercises specific to certain muscles or target ares, and lastly log my cardio time, calories and distance.
*More and more companies and programs are releasing iPhone applications, if your a member to a gym or fitness program, you should look that up first. For example Weight watchers, Golds Gym and 24 hour fitness have iPhone applications available.
The best free application I have found so far and the one I personally use is Fitness Pro by Data Supply.
Fitness Pro features I use most often:
- - View exercises by target areas (abs, arms, back, butt and hip, chest, legs, shoulder, full body, stretch or cardio) or by exercise name (a-z.)
- - All of the 430 exercises feature images of a real person doing the exercise, as well as, a text summary.
- - Keep a log of the exercise by date, rep and weight.
- -Create multiple “workouts” by selecting exercises.
News Digest V1.3
Social media is transforming how companies are interacting with their customers. The Globe and Mail explores the social media strategies of six Canadian companies. One of the featured entrepreneurs is Pierre Martell, brother of Dan Martell who last week released Clarity, a tool to connect you with advisors and mentors all over the world.
Apparently 95% of the new LinkedIn iPad application is built using HTML5 techniques. Check it out if you would like to see how it compares to native iOS applicatoins. In a sidenote, the lead engineer recommends not using responsive design techniques except in the case of relatively simple websites. – via VentureBeat
For all you Ruby fans out there, now you can make native iOS applications using your favorite language.
Influential UX designer Matt Gemell writes about what he uses to make his iPad a productivity device. Personally I use Keynote, Reeder and Tweetbot everyday as well.
An enthusiastic endorsement of the new E-Bay iPad app update.
Some Silicon Valley bigwigs are coming up with a creative solution to the pesky work visa issues foreign talent faces in the US. – via BGR
Mall operator General Growth Properties describes how their mobile app has massively enhanced their mobile marketing strategy and using a special in app game they are encouraging daily app opens from 18% of their users. There is a lot of detail about their end-to-end strategy from their E-mail news letters, to SMS campaigns, to QR code scanning. Most impressive is their 83% redemption rate on offers sent to customers who were willing to receive geofenced promotions to their phone. – via Mobile Commerce Daily
Zappos talks about their experiences with mobile apps. Takeaways – app consumers are better customers than those that use the mobile web, and push notifications are a whole new marketing channel but that enhancing the user experience with frequent updates and fun window dressing are key to the brand experience. - via Mobile Commerce Daily
Ben Sandofsky writes a great description of the trade offs you make when deciding to go with a crossplatform HTML5 solution versus native development. He is not enthusiastic about write once deploy everywhere solutions for apps with any level of complexity to say the least.
Read MoreNews Digest V1.2
Recently Apple has started rejecting submissions to the app store which make use of UDID information. A study by a mobile ad server, MoPub, suggests that eCPM for ads served in these apps will be reduced substantially – via Apple Insider
A piece on mobile strategies running the gamut from SMS campaigns, responsive web design, targeted mobile applications and Twitter and Instagram presence. Their take home message seems to be that it is something that should be evaluated on a case by case basis, largely dependent on budget. – via the Globe and Mail
The University of Calgary magazine profiles four alumni deeply involved in Silicon Valley, starring James Gosling, father of Java.
Ad network Chitika shows mobile traffic from mid April showing that despite the relative sales distribution favoring Android in the US, almost three quarters of mobile online activity is attributable to iOS devices – via Apple Insider
Jakob Nielson highlights the need for a separate mobile optimized site along with several design suggestions. Key points: cut features, cut content in a way that only the most critical information is on the main page, and enlarge interface elements to deal with “fat finger” syndrome.
Wired Magazine explores why iOS apps tend to look better than Android apps. In short – better development tools, less fragmentation and better design guidelines from Apple.
37signals makes a suggestion as to how to design your signup pages.
The Globe and Mail reports that 3.5 million Canadians are using mobile banking apps. That’s over 10% of the population!
A claim from TastyPlacement that in terms of SEO, having Google+ activity is more important than your Facebook or Twitter presence. Somehow this does not surprise me. via Business Insider
Out camping in the wilderness with your phone? Running out of power? Use your friendly neighborhood fire powered charger! via – iPhoneinCanada
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