Twitter’s new profile headers slammed

 interface, Internet News  266 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

Today, Twitter announced all-new header photos, which appear to be rather similar to those Facebook introduced some months ago and that Google+ also uses. In Twitter’s case, the argument for the introduction and inclusion of such images is to “make your presence on Twitter more meaningful”, and to “help you get to know people better through their pictures,” according to Product Manager Sachin Agarwal. The reality is the profile now takes up more space, forcing down tweets. Worse, Silktide founder Oliver Embarton argued Twitter’s poor design potentially makes it harder, not easier, to discover more about someone:

MORE:  Twitter’s new profile headers slammed | News | .net magazine.

 

Customers reporting BofA website problems, Word of DoS Attack

 Internet News  23 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

Some Bank of America Corp customers in the United States said on Tuesday they were having trouble logging into its online banking website, reviving memories of a serious outage last fall.

The scope of the problem could not immediately be learned, and a Bank of America spokesman did not have immediate comment.

via Customers reporting BofA website problems | Reuters.

 

With iPhone 5, Apple Has Chiseled The Smartphone To Near Perfection

 Tech News  507 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

The iPhone 5 is here.

I’ve had the opportunity to play around with the latest iPhone for the past several days. I won’t beat around the bush: it’s fantastic.

Of course, you’re probably expecting me to say that. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The fact of the matter is, you can either listen to me or lose out. You’re going to want this phone.

Reading the press coverage since the unveiling, you may have heard that the iPhone 5 is disappointing, or boring. Those people, quite frankly, are fools. They either haven’t actually used the device, or only played with it for a few minutes in the hands-on area after last week’s event. (Or worse, they’re projecting their own boredom in their jobs due to Apple’s dominance of the tech scene these past few years.) Using a device on a regular basis is what really matters. And in that regard, the iPhone 5 shines in just about every conceivable way.

In fact, I’ll go a step farther: I really do believe this is the best iPhone upgrade that Apple has done yet (besting the iPhone-to-iPhone 3G jump and the iPhone 3GS-to-iPhone 4 jump). As such, it’s the best version of the iPhone yet. By far.

MORE:  With iPhone 5, Apple Has Chiseled The Smartphone To Near Perfection | TechCrunch.

 

Google+ Has 400 Million Members

 Internet News  275 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Google‘s social network Google+ has more than 400 million members, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra has announced.

Gundotra posted the news on his Google+ profile today, adding that Google+ also has 100 million monthly active users — if you count in the mobile app.

“This week we also hit an important milestone–over 400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+. It was only a year ago that we opened public sign-up, and we couldn’t have imagined that so many people would join in just 12 months,” wrote Gundotra.

MORE:  Google+ Has 400 Million Members.

 

Lexar announces $900 256GB SD card for pro video

 Tech News  387 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Three words describe the Lexar Professional 400x SDXC UHS-I memory card: big, fast, and expensive.

The company is pitching the $900 card at those who need to shoot lots of 1080p or 3D video, a market noted for its capacity-gobbling files, intolerance for hiccups in data transfer, and deep pockets.

The card can transfer data at a sustained speed of 60MBps, and it will ship in October, the Micron subsidiary said. The company does offer faster cards with a 600x rating, but they top out at 64GB capacities.

MORE:  Lexar announces $900 256GB SD card for pro video | Crave – CNET.

 

Make a scalable newsletter with Fireworks

 Design, interface  414 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

There’s a preconception among designers that email clients’ lack of support for web standards means you can’t get creative with newsletters. James Parker is out to explode this theory

In the current economic climate, firms across the globe are looking to maximise their return on investment from slashed marketing budgets. With customer information databases bulging, and the ability to target people genuinely interested in what they’re selling, it’s no surprise email newsletters have become the marketers’ new weapon of choice.

But even with demand at an all time high, there are still a vast number of designers hesitant to offer newsletters to their clients. Put off by the lack of support for web standards in email clients, many feel restricted as to how creative they can be.

I want to put that theory to bed. Designing in this format can be great fun, and the technical limitations of working on emails can be a blessing in disguise because they get us back to thinking about basic design principles.

In this tutorial we’ll use Fireworks to design an email newsletter for Love Barista, a social project for coffee lovers. Focusing on a sleek, scalable layout, and by considering the weight given to core elements in the design, you’ll build up an email that’ll stand out of any mailbox. At the end of the tutorial you’ll be ready to build, and as our layout would be perfect for a Campaign Monitor template, I’ll give you a few tips to help get you started.

MORE:  Make a scalable newsletter with Fireworks | Tutorial | .net magazine.

 

How Facebook Timeline measures up for brands

 interface, Internet News  154 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Timeline best practices

  • Design and build compelling engagement apps that speak in a meaningful way to the brand’s audience and capture the brand’s essence.
  • Don’t expect fans to “find” the apps from clicking the tiles below the cover photo. Drive traffic to that engagement app, post about it in the Timeline every day, and drive through other media.
  • Make sure apps are mobile-aware. Visit your favorite brand page on the Facebook mobile app. Find a link in the Timeline to an app. In most cases, the link doesn’t work. With extra effort, it’s possible to ensure that engagement apps run optimally on both Facebook desktop and Facebook mobile.
  • Strive to deliver fresh, engaging content every day (questions, challenges, daily prizes, sweepstakes entries, comments) to entertain fans and keep them coming back.
  • Include engaging media (photos, videos) to grab attention.
  • Incorporate user-submitted content if possible. This not only gives the fan a personal feeling of participation, but also gives the brand interesting content that can be used as the subject of future posts.
  • Look at ways gamification elements, like leaderboards, can juice engagement.

Bad Timeline habits

  • Engagement apps that pull fans away from the Facebook page and funnel them onto a website cause fans to lose the social context and limit the potential of word-of-mouth sharing on Facebook.
  • Facebook is special, yet many brands don’t offer Facebook fans something unique they can’t get anywhere else. Leverage the highest share possible — one from a valued and trusted friend — and give Facebook fans something unique.
  • Brands tend to be averse to tapping advocates to learn and connect deeply. There’s a huge amount of insight to be gained from the fans that are willing to talk about what they’ve bought or experienced.
  • Brands that don’t maximize the full potential of Facebook ad products (ads, Sponsored Stories) to drive more traffic and maximize reach miss out on engagement. Those ad products are designed to amplify good social behaviors to a wider audience and can be highly leveraged.

MORE:  How Facebook Timeline measures up for brands single page view – iMediaConnection.com.

 

iPhone 5 benchmarks surface: Performance doubles

 Tech News  279 Responses »
Sep 172012
 

The iPhone 5‘s A6 processor appears to be roughly twice as fast as any chip in an existing iOS product, if results posted by Geekbench prove to be accurate.

The results show a score of 1,601, beating the dual-core A5 and A5X processors in the iPhone 4s and third-generation iPad (Retina), respectively.

Previous benchmarks of the Retina iPad show a score of 794 (iPad with 3G/4G). The iPhone 4S posted a score of 631.

If these iPhone 5 benchmarks are legitimate, they would match Apple’s claims. “With the new A6 chip, just about everything you do on iPhone 5 is noticeably faster — up to twice as fast compared with the A5 chip,” Apple states on its iPhone 5 features page.

MORE:  iPhone 5 benchmarks surface: Performance doubles | Apple – CNET News.

 

AMD Stays in the Game with Another Round of Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts

 Tech News  339 Responses »
Sep 172012
 

Talk about a buyers market if youre a gamer. Its great to time to go videocard shopping, both because there are new GPUs landing on store shelves, and also due to the fact that prices are coming down. Perhaps looking to steal some thunder from Nvidias Kepler-based GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 launch, Advanced Micro Devices AMD is reportedly reducing the price of its Radeon HD 7000 series.

MORE:  Maximum PC | AMD Stays in the Game with Another Round of Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts.

 

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