Case Study : Design from scratch – The Top Note

Crafting and developing the branding for a client from scratch is always an exciting challenge here at DotImpact.  With every project we look to ensure the client’s full brief is met and the essence of their original idea becomes central to their website’s branding and identity.
We have recently created and launched a new website as well as branding for one of our clients, The Top Note – turning a basic initial concept into a fully functioning website, recognisable branding and integrated social media.
Background
The Top Note is built on the passions of its creator, Stuart Parkinson, for all things micro and macro-economics. Forging a successful career within the financial and strategist sector he has developed a passion for consumerism.
This has been teamed with a desire to create a thought-provoking blog-style resource to help consumers become ‘more price savvy’ and this has developed further into full scale investigation of price comparisons of large brands, particularly in relation to the supermarkets sector. The Top Note is a sophisticated blog which offers original articles and blog posts covering a wide range of different financial and consumer-focused topics.
Challenges
Stuart came to us with no online presence, platform or branding. Our expert team were able to work with him to visualise and create his brand, which was then interpreted onto the website, with many in depth discussions and conceptual drafts, focusing heavily on typography.
How we helped

• Complete brand generation from scratch with regular and consistent input from the client ensuring his satisfaction with the concept.
• Aiding in the alignment of the blogging site with the client’s overall brand vision
• Full website development, design and build, with a clear focus on creating a striking platform for readers, generating brand awareness and a simple, effective user experience
• Integrated social media, specifically Twitter and LinkedIn to enable the client to build brand awareness and give the client more opportunity to engage online.

Here’s what the client said:
“DotImpact were able to take my basic idea and transform it into much more. My idea became a fully-fledged brand and my website allows me to write and blog in the way I had planned on a much more professional-looking and appealing platform. I could not be more pleased with the results and thank DotImpact for all their input and commitment, especially during the early concept stages.”

About AdSense for your blog

Blogger provides a simple way for you to make money with your blog. AdSense is Google's content-targeted advertising program. If you use AdSense, you don't have to select keywords or categories for your ads. Instead, Google's servers determine what your posts are about and display the most relevant ads to your readers. For example, if you blog about baseball, you might see ads for “Major League Baseball memorabilia” next to your post. If you blog about painting, you might see ads for “Art Supplies.”
Blogger requests access to your AdSense account so that we can automatically create and place ad code on your page through our layouts and template tools. As a result of this, you might notice that Blogger is receiving "0%" of your AdSense earnings - this means that you will receive the same amount for clicks or impressions as you would creating the ad code from your AdSense account.
To view any partners that have requested access to your AdSense account, and their associated revenue shares, please log in to your AdSense account, click the Home tab, choose the Account settings sub-tab and go to “3rd-party access.” If you see an "enable access" link next to blogger.com, you must click this link in order to create ads with Blogger tools.
To take full advantage of other AdSense options and settings, such as managing the types of ads that appear on your blog, you can sign in to the AdSense site and have a look around. That's where you can see how much money your ads are earning and manage your account.

Troubleshooting

Could not retrieve earnings stats
The error message above can occur when 3rd-party Access has been disabled in your AdSense account. To re-enable access to your AdSense account by Blogger, please log in to your AdSense account, and click the Account Settings link. You'll see an enable access link next to blogger.com, you must click this link in order to create ads with Blogger tools. You will then be able to log back into blogger.com and continue setting up AdSense from the Earningstab.

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0 Downloads

Download Now Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0 

MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER EDITOR'S REVIEW

Macromedia Dreamweaver is one of the most popular web-design programs in the industry. It allows you to develop professional websites and its user-friendly interface, tools and features have made it the must-have package for web designers.

Dreamweaver uses both Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and it has good code-editing support features that will help you to write the CSS and HTML. Alongside writing the code, you can use the visual layout tools to build your sites and make them look exceptional.

You can use plug-ins to place videos, music and other media into web pages. If you want a site that is easy to update, then you can embed a live stream of content by using RSS.

Pros: Dreamweaver 8 is easy to use and has lots of great new features. It allows you to use CSS and RSS to make your sites look better than ever.

Cons: Some users have reported a problem with the file-time stamp in Dreamweaver 8, which made it difficult to know when a file was last worked on. This was fixed with the 8.0.1 update though.

Conclusion: Using Macromedia Dreamweaver to create websites is much more fun than simply writing code from start to finish. Using its many tools and features will help you to create much more sophisticated pages too. Being able to add media and RSS feeds will make your sites stand out from more ‘flat’ ones that just provide a few words and pictures.

MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Dreamweaver 8 is the industry-leading web development tool, enabling users to efficiently design, develop and maintain standards-based websites and applications.With Dreamweaver 8, web developers go from start to finish, creating and maintaining basic websites to advanced applications that support best practices and the latest technologies.

Download Now

Valeant to buy Bausch + Lomb for $8.7B

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals says it will buy eye-health company Bausch + Lomb for $8.7 billion in cash in a massive expansion of its ophthalmology business.
Valeant says the deal will help it capitalize on increasing demand for contact lenses and other products because of aging populations, growing demand in emerging markets and increasing rates of diabetes.
Investment firm Warburg Pincus, which leads an investment group that owns Bausch + Lomb, will receive $4.5 billion in cash. The remaining $4.2 billion will be used to repay Bausch + Lomb's debt.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch + Lomb Holdings Inc. makes contact lenses, eye drugs and ophthalmic surgical devices.
Bausch + Lomb will keep its name and become a division of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., based in Laval, Quebec.

Prominent hotel developer and Missouri philanthropist John Q. Hammons has died. He was 94. His company says Hammons passed away Sunday at the Springfield nursing home where he'd lived after stepping away from the company he led well into.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners - Tutorial Part 2

SEO Title Tag

The first and most important part of your on-page SEO is the title tag (<title></title>). Many people who outsource or create a site in a WYSIWYG editor completely forget about the last of the meta tags that still gives some quality ranking love from search engines.
The benefits of using optimized title tags are three fold:

1. A user searching for your keyword will see your site's link highlighted in the search engines if your page's title is the same as the phrase they searched for. This drastically increases click through and can even give you more traffic than those who rank above you if their title tags are not optimized.
2. Increase your rankings on the search engines.
3. Help the engines distinguish between pages that might look similar.

Higher Clickthrough Rates

Search engine optimization isn't just about showing up number one on search engines. Rather, it's about getting the all the traffic that you deserve from the search engines. If you rank #6 for "free hats" and you and your competitors forget to include that in the page's title tag, chances are, the person doing the search won't see much difference between your site and the others.
However, if you were to change your website's title text to target your most important keyword phrase "free hats", then when someone completes the search for "free hats", they'd see your site show up in bold. This technique will greatly increase the user's desire to view your site first, as your site looks much more relevant and targeted.

Better Rankings

All too often, people believe that the title tag is a place to list the business and domain name of the website. This is wrong and is wasting one of the easiest ways you can tell the search engines what the a page is about and how they should categorize it. While humans might not notice the title tag, search engines certainly do.
Use this opportunity to choose the most important keyword that you want to go after and get the free ranking boost that so many websites are missing out on. If you still want to include your domain or name of the company, do it after your keyword, followed by a dash (e.g. "free hats - hatsemporium.com") to show that your keyword is the most important.

Help the Engines Distinguish your Pages

It's not easy being a search engine. They crawl the web day and night, taking the information from the web and trying to categorize it in a useful manner so that users can find what they're looking for. Make their job easier. Post clearly what the topic of each page is, using title tags, and help the search engine to distinguish one page from another.
You may have two pages that are quite similar and it may require a little thought to point out how they different. Don't make the search engines figure out for themselves because they might make a mistake. Instead, make the decision for them. Spell the differences out for them and help your rankings in the process. This is just one strategy in avoiding the duplicate content penalty, which we'll be getting into greater depth later.

SEO Header and Bold Tags

Although the internet has changed a great deal in the last ten years, one thing that has remained status quo is the way that webmasters designate topics and things of importance. Topics of a page are often set with header tags <h1> though <h6>, while important items are put in bold to make sure that the user noticed them. However, not just the user notices these attention-grabbing tags. Search engines also use these as primary indicators of what a page is about and what content its creator thought was most important.

Header Tags - <h1> through <h6>

Header tags are a great way to help boost your search engine rankings. If you're creating a page about "free hats" and would like to rank for it, there's nothing shady at all about including a nice big <h1>Free Hats</h1> at the top of the page to make sure your users and the search engines know what your page's subject is. However, as with other search engine strategies, it is important not to stuff too many keywords into these tags. A good rule of thumb is to include no more than 3 or 4 <h1> tags per page, and always have at least a paragraph or two of text between your header tags.
A page that consists entirely of header tags looks pretty spammy to search engines, and it isn't very useful to your visitors.

Bold, Italic, and Emphasis

When you've used up your quota of header tags on the page, don't stress out. There are still plenty of tools to target your keywords with. When mentioning your keywords throughout the page, it's helpful to put them into italics, bold, or emphasis (<em>) to make sure the search engines know that these words are important. 
Often people use a lot of flash animations and CSS <span> tags to format text, but search engines don't have an easy way of determining either of these. Why make the search engines work harder than they need to? Use these basic HTML tags and help yourself (and the engines) out!

SEO Keyword Use

So you've researched which keywords you want to target, but just putting the keywords in your <title> and <h1> tags is not enough. If you stop there, you're not going to be able to cover all the bases or pull in as much search traffic as you could. When doing on-page optimization for your selected keywords, there are three things to take into consideration:

1. Keywords Density - How many times is your keyword mentioned on your site? If it's too much, you'll look like a spammer; if it's too little, you won't look like a relevant match and the search engines won't consider your site.
2. Keyword Variation - Altering versions of your keywords will help you capture hidden search engine traffic.
3. Similar Keywords - These are closely related topics to your keywords that will aide the search engines in correctly categorizing your traffic.

Keyword Density

Although some SEOs will talk about aiming for an exact proportion (e.g. the number of times your keyword appears divided by the total number of words on the page), it's a little too much work for something that will take care of itself as long as you know how to write well! Use your keyword frequently on your site, but not so much that it makes the page look weird or a sentence sound awkward. If you just use the keyword once at the top of the page and then reference the keyword as "it", for the rest of the article, you'll definitely be using it too little.
If you want some numbers, you should use your keyword at least three times on the page. This does not include keyword variations.

Keyword Variations

You may have found a couple of high traffic keywords using a keyword research tool, but those estimates often group similar keywords, alternate spellings, and plurals into a single word. Valuable traffic is hidden when using those tools. This hidden traffic lies in all the subtle variations of your keyword that someone may search for.

• Plurals - The easiest way to optimize your site is to include the plural version of your keyword at least a couple of times on your page. Nearly every keyword can do this (instead of "free hat", try "free hats").
• Misspellings - Although it may make your site look a little unprofessional, including a very common misspelling of your keywrod is one of the easiest ways to rank #1 for that exact spelling and get some free traffic. This is one of the fun things to experiment with after you've optimized the rest of your site.
• Acronyms - If your keyword is an acronym like SEO, write out the words completely (Search Engine Optimization) so that you can target those people who do not know the acronym.

Similar Keywords

If you're making a page to target "big hats," consider changing up the adjective "big" to its synonyms, like "huge," "giant," "large," "humongous," or "oversized." You can also use the names of specific words that relate to "big hats," like "cowboy hat" and "sombrero." By using this tactic, you give yourself a chance to rank for those similar keywords, plus you let the search engines know more about your page and what it's about. The more a search engine knows about your page, the better off you're going to be!

SEO Internal Linking Structure

The honest fact is, if company owners knew how important that the internal linking structure of a site was to a site's performance on the search engines, they'd have multiple dedicated staff working just to make sure they had it optimized 100%. This topic is a little advanced, but it's helpful to break the inner linking structure down into three parts:

1. Page depth
2. Quantity of Internal Links
3. Quality of Internal Links

Page Depth

Page depth refers to the number of required clicks to get to a page from the homepage. Pages that are available in one click are deemed more important than those that are nearly hidden and require more than 3 clicks to reach. It might seem a little strange, but if you can visualize your website in a tree graph, you will easily notice why certain pages are performing poorly in the search engines.
By organizing your site in this format, you can see which pages are getting a lot of page depth love and which are hurting. If you have a lot of worthless pages and few important product pages, you might take this opportunity to restructure your site.

Quantity of Internal Links

This point is simple; the more internal links you have that point to a certain page, the more important search engines believe that page to be. A common page that ranks well on almost every site is the homepage. This point will continue to be true for many years because nearly every webmaster programs their site so that every page has a link back to the homepage.
So how do make your other pages benefit from this? Does that mean you should have every page on your site include a link to EVERY SINGLE PAGE in your site? No. That's an obvious red flag to search engines, and you'll be seen as a spammer if your site has a couple of paragraphs and then 500 links to every other page on your site.
A better strategy would to have a "Top Products" section that includes a link to pages you want to receive the most link love. Another strategy is to have a link for each of the major areas of your site. This will help give those areas a lot of link love, and in turn, they'll be able to get more link love to the pages contained within them.

Quality of Internal Links

Just including a bunch of internal links to an important page is not enough; they also need to be high quality links. For your most important pages, make sure the links they receive have as many of the following criterion as possible:

1. Anchor Text - If you're targeting a certain keyword(or keywords) make sure the internal links have the keyword in the anchor text. Also, bonus points for using slightly altered anchor text throughout your site.
2. Link Position - The higher a link occurs in the HTML, the better. If you link to "cowboy hats" at the top of the page, but "sombreros" towards the bottom of the page, search engines are going to view the link to "cowboy hats" as more valuable than the link to "sombreros."
3. Link Zone - The best scenario for link love is to link from one page to a highly-related page. The closer the subjects of each are in topic, the higher the amount of link love that will be transferred. For example, it is better to link form a page about "cowboy boots" to a page about "cowboy hats" than it is to link from a page about "tacos" to a page about "cowboy hats." This doesn't mean you shouldn't include links on pages that are different, but just keep in mind that the link love will not be as strong as it could be.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners - Tutorial Part 1

What SEO Is

Search Engine Optimization refers to the collection of techniques and practices that allow a site to get more traffic from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). SEO can be divided into two main areas: off-page SEO (work that takes place separate from the website) and on-page SEO (website changes to make your website rank better). This tutorial will cover both areas in detail! Remember, a website is not fully optimized for search engines unless it employs both on and off-page SEO.

What SEO Is Not

SEO is not purchasing the number #1 sponsored link through Google Adwords and proclaiming that you have a #1 ranking on Google. Purchasing paid placements on search engines is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and is not covered in this tutorial.
SEO is not ranking #1 for your company's name. If you're reading this tutorial, you probably already know that ranking for popular terms is darn near impossible, but specific terms, such as a company name, is a freebie. The search engines usually are smart enough to award you that rank by default (unless you are being penalized).

Who Uses SEO

If a website is currently ranked #10 on Google for the search phrase, "how to make egg rolls," but wants to rise to #1, this websites needs to consider SEO. Because search engines have become more and more popular on the web, nearly anyone trying to get seen on the web can benefit from a little SEO loving.

Keyword Research

Before you can start optimizing your site for the search engines, you must first know which terms you want to target. A good start would be to choose 3 or 4 keywords you would like your website to rank well for. With these keywords in your mind you can then set a goal to rank in the top 10 results on Google for each of them (we refer to Google because if you can rank well there, you'll rank well on the other search engines). These keywords can be either broad or specific, but you'll want to study our list of pros and cons of each before choosing.

Broad Keywords

A broad keyword is one that many people search for, because they may only have a vague idea of what they're looking for. Broad keywords tend to be very short and aren't very specific (e.g. "shoes" or "sports"). These keywords are difficult to rank #1 for because so many other websites might have an article or two that mention shoes. However, if you can rank well for a broad keyword, you will be receiving a great deal of traffic. 
Summary: Hard to rank for, but worth it in the long run. We recommend that beginners only choose a broad keyword if their industries are not very competitive.

Specific Keywords

A specific keyword is something that contains many adjectives or words that make the search very targeted. The people doing these types of searches know exactly what they want (e.g. "used black high heel shoes"). These keywords are much less competitive and are easier to rank for on search engines. The downside is that they receive a great deal less volume of searches per month. In terms of traffic, you will need to have several #1 rankings for specific keywords to equal one #1 ranking broad keyword.
Summary: Easier to rank for and it's highly targeted traffic. The only downside is that the number of visitors you will receive is relatively low.

Unique or Branded Keywords

These are the words that are specific to only your company. They are one of the most easiest ways to get traffic. However, some companies will release a new product, with a unique name, and then forget to optimize for that keyword on their website. Their SEO savvy competitors can then pick up the slack and take over the top rankings for these terms. If you have a popular brand or product, make sure that you have optimized for these freebie keywords.

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools are 2 parts voodoo magic and 1 part hard statistic. This is partly due to Google not releasing actual numbers and partly due to overeager SEO Tool developers trying to sell their products. Because there is such a sizable uncertainty in all keyword research tools, it is best to use as many different sources as you can,. Even with multiple sources, you should only take the information you gather as a recommendation, rather than a fact.
Yahoo has been releasing their keyword search information for years, and many tools are based off of this specific data. We've collected a wide variety of helpful tools that will give you a general idea of which keywords you should target when making and optimizing your websites.

Picking a Short List

To put the optimizing tactics that we teach to good use, we recommend that you try to target no more than 2 or 3 keyword phrases per page. A common mistake by many SEO beginners is to stuff 500 different keywords on one page and wait for the #1 rankings to roll in. That might have worked 10 years ago, but the algorithms that search engines use these days are much more sophisticated and are not tricked by this. That's why it's best to start small, and be concise with the keywords that you choose. New sites in particular will find it nearly impossible to rank well for many keyword phrases upon first starting out.

What is PageRank?

PageRank is a ranking system that previously was the foundation of the infamous search engine, Google. When search engines were first developed, they ranked all websites equally and would return results based only on the content and meta tags the pages contained. At the time, however, the PageRank system would revolutionize search engine rankings by including one key factor: a site's authority.
To determine how important, or authoritative, a site was Google chose several big sites, such as cnn.com, dmoz.org, and espn.com. These sites were clear authorities, and Google figured that if these websites chose to link to another site (let's say site B), then site B would receive a piece of that site's authority. If site B were to link to another site (how about C), then site C would also receive a piece of authority, though much smaller.
Using this system of passing authority, Google would then count up how much authority a site had and give it a PageRank from 0 to 10. The PageRank system has become more complicated since then, but this is how it all started.

What's my PageRank?

If you would like to see what PageRank your site has or other sites have, install Google's Toolbar. Google has made a small green bar that starts at 0 page rank (a blank bar) all the way up to 10 (a full green bar, which is 100% authoritative). It should be noted that the PageRank shown in the toolbar is an estimate released by Google, and it is only updated every 3 months or so.

Who Uses PageRank?

When PageRank first came out, only Google was using the technology, but as other search engines have seen how much it improved Google's accuracy, nearly every search engine has added the PageRank system in to be at least part of their algorithm. In the past, while many of the search engines were still working on adding PageRank to their search algorithm, some couldn't wait to make their own and instead signed deals with Google to have them power their results (Yahoo did this for quite some time).
Apart from search engines, SEOs (Search Engine Optimization specialists), link buyers, webmasters, marketers, and anyone interested in a site's value will often look to the Google PageRank when trying to quickly determine the importance of a site.

How Important is PageRank?

When Google was in its childhood, PageRank was the single most important factor for ranking well. However, as soon as the SEO community caught on to this, there was a great deal of people who found ways to artificially boost their clients' PageRank. Those sites became more authoritative than Google thought they should be. Since then, Google and other search engines have constantly refined how important PageRank is, and its importance has definitely declined through the years.
One tactic Google uses is to update Google Toolbar PageRank values four times a year instead of every week, making it difficult for SEOs to know a site's real PageRank. Another tactic is to prevent a site that has been known to sell links from passing any of its PageRank (authority) on to sites that it links to. However, Google can't use that tactic too much because then they run the risk of preventing good sites from being ranked as they should be.
This is a battle between Google and SEOs that will not be ending anytime soon!

Where do I Get PageRank for my Site?

Now we've come to the part where you actually have to do work! It's tough, but getting a high PageRank for your site should definitely be part of your longterm SEO strategy.
The only way to get PageRank is to get a link from a site that already has PageRank. This means that getting a ton of links from PageRank 0 sites will not help your score. However, a single link from a site with a PageRank 6 can immediately boost your site to a PageRank 5 if the site is trusted by Google and is not linking to a massive amount of other sites.
The process of increasing your PageRank is directly tied to link acquisition. Link acquisition is getting links from other sites, be it via natural or through link purchasing. We cover both of these topics in greater detail, and you should read each lesson to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Final Thoughts: PageRank

Although not nearly as important as it used to be, PageRank can still be the deciding factor that bumps your site to the top of the search engines. Not only that, but it is also a good indicator of which sites you should spend your most time trying to get links from. Sites with a PageRank 0 are either being punished by Google, or just have an authority of zero, nada, zilch, bupkis, and generally not worth your time. 

 Post Continue in Next post Part 2 Click Here To Read it.

Android 4.0: Tracking Ice Cream Sandwich's Availability on Smartphones

Last week HTC published a list of phones that will receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, along with approximate launch dates and a projected completion date of late August 2012. This is not a very encouraging prospect considering Google officially introduced ICS last October. Also because Android's next major revision codenamed “Jelly Bean” will be close to release by then (slated for Q3/12).
But this is not an issue with HTC phones exclusively. In fact, Ice Cream Sandwich is more the exception rather than the rule on Android devices across the board. There’s a total of four smartphones shipping with the OS preloaded, just over a dozen with upgrades available, and more than 30 on the “coming soon” list.

Phones shipping with ICS

Your choices here are limited to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which was released in December in partnership with Google and features an unskinned version of Android 4.0, and the HTC One lineup comprising the One S on T-Mobile, One X on AT&T, and Evo 4G LTE on Sprint. These are soon to be joined by the Samsung Galaxy S III, which is expected to launch globally soon, including all four major carriers in the US.

Phones with ICS upgrades rolling out now

These smartphones are already being upgraded to Android 4.0. If you own one of these and are still waiting for the update to come through, keep in mind that they’re being rolled out over a period of several weeks.

HTC	Samsung	Sony
83 Sensation	91 Galaxy S II (unlocked, Canada)	81 Xperia Ray
84 Sensation XE	79 Galaxy S II LTE (unlocked, Canada)	80 Xperia arc S
82 Sensation 4G (T-Mo, Bell, Virgin Ca.)	83 Galaxy Note (unlocked)	Xperia neo V
71 Vivid (AT&T)	71 Nexus S 4G (Sprint)	71 Xperia arc
82 Velocity (Australia)	84 Nexus S (unlocked)	77 Xperia neo
78 Amaze 4G (T-Mobile)
Raider 4G (Bell Canada)

Phones with ICS updates "coming soon"

Not all phone manufacturers are offering specific details as to when each of their devices are getting upgraded to Android 4.0. Motorola is only listing them by quarter, while HTC recently provided a two-month release window, and Sony is being a little more specific with the next round of updates starting this week and continuing throughout June into the third quarter. Samsung is not giving out any dates whatsoever.

HTC

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Sensation XL	May-June	May 19, 2011
EVO 4G+	May-June	June 2011
Rezound	June-July	November 14, 2011
EVO 3D	June-July	June 24, 2011
EVO Design 4G	June-July	October 23, 2011
Desire S	June-July	March 8, 2011
Incredible S	June-July	February 26, 2011
Rhyme	June-July	September 29, 2011
Thunderbolt	July-August	March 17, 2011
Desire HD	July-August	October 20, 2010
DROID Incredible 2	TBD	April 28, 2011

HTC notes that due to localization, testing, and partner approvals, updates do not roll out to all devices at the same time. For devices on a wide variety of carriers and in many countries, rollouts can take up to 45 days from the initial update to reach everyone. You can manually check for updates by going to Settings>About>Software Updates if you are not prompted to update automatically.
The upgrade to Android 4.0 will include Sense 3.6, not Sense 4, since some aspects of Sense 4 require dedicated hardware, which is not available on all devices.

Motorola

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Droid Razr (USA, Asia Pacific, Canada, China, EMEA, Japan, Korea & LATAM)	Q2 2012	November 11, 2011
Droid Razr Maxx (USA)	Q2 2012	January 26, 2011
Atrix 2 (Asia-Pacific, LATAM, USA, and selected other markets)	Q3 2012	October 16, 2011
Atrix 4G (USA)	Q3 2012	February 22, 2011
Droid 4 (USA)	Q3 2012	February 10, 2011
Droid Bionic (USA)	Q3 2012	September 8, 2011
Photon 4G (USA)	Q4 2012	July 31, 2011
Atrix / Atrix 4G (Asia Pacific, EMEA and LATAM)	TBD	--
Electrify (USA)	TBD	September 22, 2011
Photon 4G (Japan)	TBD	--

To date, the only Motorola device that has been upgraded to Android 4.0 is the WiFi-only XOOM (and only the versions in the US or Canada). The company outlined their 4-step updating process back in December and plans to start rolling out a few of those “soon”. Regarding the selection of phones that qualify for updates and the ones that don’t, Motorola has this to say: “Obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can’t be done—well then, we’re not able to upgrade that particular device.”

Samsung

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Galaxy S II (AT&T, T-Mobile)	TBD	April 28, 2011
Galaxy S II Skyrocket (AT&T)	TBD	November 6, 2011
Galaxy Note (AT&T)	TBD	October 28, 2011
Captivate Glide (AT&T)	TBD	November 21, 2011
Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (Sprint)	TBD	September 16, 2011
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G (T-Mobile)	TBD	March 21, 2012

Samsung has been at the forefront of the move from 2.3 to 4.0, rolling Ice Cream Sandwich out to a number of unlocked devices, including the hugely popular Galaxy S II. Unfortunately, updates to branded devices tend to get held up in carrier-specific testing so a lot of users with subsidized phones are still waiting their turn. Making matters worst neither Samsung nor carriers are sharing a timeframe for the update.

Sony

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Xperia mini	Week of May 28	August 2011
Xperia mini pro	Week of May 28	August 9, 2011
Xperia pro	Week of May 28	October 18, 2011
Xperia active	Week of May 28	October 1, 2011
Sony Ericsson Live	Week of May 28	Q4 2011
Xperia S	End of June	March 1, 2012
Xperia P	End of June	Unreleased
Xperia U	Q3 2012	May 7, 2012
Xperia sola	TBD	May 7, 2012
Xperia ion	TBD	March 1, 2012

Sony has been pretty forthcoming about its Ice Cream Sandwich rollout and so far they’ve mostly kept true to their planned upgrade schedule. Just recently they started rolling out updates for two of their 2011 devices and more should follow throughout the week and over the next month. Notably, the Xperia Play will be the only Xperia phone from last year’s lineup not getting the update, as Sony cited stability and consistency issues.
Sony is rolling out Android 4.0.4 to its devices while remaining on kernel 2.6.32 — technically, ICS should feature Kernel 3.0.X+. It’s unclear if this will result in any issues or missing features. A developer for Sony Ericsson had previously said that it takes a lot of testing and validation to make a new kernel stable, so they decided to keep the tried and tested 2.6.32 kernel to release ICS as quickly as possible.

Why all the fuss about having the latest version?

If there’s one lesson to learn here is that you should buy a phone that makes you happy today, not one that promises new features with an update that may or may not appear. Granted, that’s a valid advice for any consumer electronic purchase, but Android serves as the perfect example for it.
That said, it’s not unreasonable to want your one-year-old phone to be able to get the latest software update, especially when you know it’s technically capable of running it. There are many new features to be gained in the transition from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich. Here are a few of the most noteworthy:

• UI Improvements: Android 4.0 is based on a new look and feel, the Holo theme, which offers a more consistent experience throughout the OS and makes it easier for users to find those common buttons and actions. There’s also a new “Roboto” font that’s easier on the eye and has a more modern feel.
• Multitasking, Widgets, and Folders: There’s a new Recent Apps button that lets users jump from one task to another, and a side-swiping gesture to get rid of apps you’re no longer using. Users can also resize widgets to their liking and drag and drop icons on top of each other to create folders.
• Contacts and sharing: ICS ditches the old Android 2.3 contact list for one that shows richer profile information, including large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses, and a button for connecting on integrated social networks. There’s also a new NFC peer-to-peer sharing feature that allows users with NFC-capable devices to share apps, contacts, music, videos by touching one phone to another.
• Improved speed and full hardware acceleration: Tests have shown significant performance improvements in Android 4.0 when it comes to handling graphics and using the web browser.
• Data usage manager: Android 4.0 allows users to monitor total data usage by network type and application, as well as set limits on those data-hungry apps so you don’t incur in expensive overage fees.
• Various other new features and enhancements: You can access the camera and notifications without unlocking your device first, there’s a new face-unlock feature, Wi-Fi direct support to share files between compatible devices, improvements to the camera and video apps, and more.

Lastly, it’s also worth noting that the lack of timely updates exacerbates Android’s fragmentation problem, which makes it that much harder for developers to QA apps. If you’ve ever wondered why you run into bugs and other unexplained behaviors on Android but not on iOS, well, fragmentation probably played a part on it.

Gmail SMS - Send free SMS to your friends from Gmail

Send free SMS to your friends from Gmail. 
 

How it works

• From Gmail, click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab
• Scroll down until you see “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and select Enable
• Also enable the “SMS in Chat gadget” and then Save Changes
• You can send free texts to your friends in the US and many countries around the world

How to send a SMS from Gmail

1.  Log into your Gmail account. In the Send SMS box above Chat, enter the phone number you want to send a SMS to. 
2.  In the dialog box, enter Contact name of the SMS recipient and check that country and phone number are correct. Then, click Save. 
3.  Type your message in the chat window and hit Enter. 
4.  Your message will be sent to the phone number you entered. 

If your contact replies, the text message response will appear as a reply in Chat. These conversations are stored in your Chat history just like regular chats. Learn more about Gmail SMS. 

Note: Sending and receiving a message from Gmail to any phone is free. When replying with an SMS from phone to Gmail, you will be charged a regular SMS rate by your mobile provider.

Importent Run Commands List

Do you use the Run feature in Windows XP?  For most, this feature remains unused (or rarely used).  Why is that?   Well, First off nearly all of the Run Commands Correspond to a particular Control Panel Item or a Utility, Tool or Task that can be accessed through Windows.    There are, however, tools and utilities that I bet you never knew you had that can be accessed through the Run feature.   The main reason most people don't use the Run feature is because they don't know the Commands.  So, to solve that problem, I decided to put together the following listing, which lists 99 Run Commands and what they correspond too...

To Access…	Run Command
Accessibility Controls	access.cpl
Accessibility Wizard	accwiz
Add Hardware Wizard	hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs	appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools	control admintools
Adobe Acrobat (if installed)	acrobat
Adobe Designer (if installed)	formdesigner
Adobe Distiller (if installed)	acrodist
Adobe ImageReady (if installed)	imageready
Adobe Photoshop (if installed)	photoshop
Automatic Updates	wuaucpl.cpl
Bluetooth Transfer Wizard	fsquirt
Calculator	calc
Certificate Manager	certmgr.msc
Character Map	charmap
Check Disk Utility	chkdsk
Clipboard Viewer	clipbrd
Command Prompt	cmd
Component Services	dcomcnfg
Computer Management	compmgmt.msc
Control Panel	control
Date and Time Properties	timedate.cpl
DDE Shares	ddeshare
Device Manager	devmgmt.msc
Direct X Control Panel (if installed)*	directx.cpl
Direct X Troubleshooter	dxdiag
Disk Cleanup Utility	cleanmgr
Disk Defragment	dfrg.msc
Disk Management	diskmgmt.msc
Disk Partition Manager	diskpart
Display Properties	control desktop
Display Properties	desk.cpl
Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)	control color
Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility	drwtsn32
Driver Verifier Utility	verifier
Event Viewer	eventvwr.msc
Files and Settings Transfer Tool	migwiz
File Signature Verification Tool	sigverif
Findfast	findfast.cpl
Firefox (if installed)	firefox
Folders Properties	folders
Fonts	control fonts
Fonts Folder	fonts
Free Cell Card Game	freecell
Game Controllers	joy.cpl
Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)	gpedit.msc
Hearts Card Game	mshearts
Help and Support	helpctr
HyperTerminal	hypertrm
Iexpress Wizard	iexpress
Indexing Service	ciadv.msc
Internet Connection Wizard	icwconn1
Internet Explorer	iexplore
Internet Properties	inetcpl.cpl
Internet Setup Wizard	inetwiz
IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration)	ipconfig /all
IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents)	ipconfig /displaydns
IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents)	ipconfig /flushdns
IP Configuration (Release All Connections)	ipconfig /release
IP Configuration (Renew All Connections)	ipconfig /renew
IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS)	ipconfig /registerdns
IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID)	ipconfig /showclassid
IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID)	ipconfig /setclassid
Java Control Panel (if installed)	jpicpl32.cpl
Java Control Panel (if installed)	javaws
Keyboard Properties	control keyboard
Local Security Settings	secpol.msc
Local Users and Groups	lusrmgr.msc
Logs You Out Of Windows	logoff
Malicious Software Removal Tool	mrt
Microsoft Access (if installed)	msaccess
Microsoft Chat	winchat
Microsoft Excel (if installed)	excel
Microsoft Frontpage (if installed)	frontpg
Microsoft Movie Maker	moviemk
Microsoft Paint	mspaint
Microsoft Powerpoint (if installed)	powerpnt
Microsoft Word (if installed)	winword
Microsoft Syncronization Tool	mobsync
Minesweeper Game	winmine
Mouse Properties	control mouse
Mouse Properties	main.cpl
Nero (if installed)	nero
Netmeeting	conf
Network Connections	control netconnections
Network Connections	ncpa.cpl
Network Setup Wizard	netsetup.cpl
Notepad	notepad
Nview Desktop Manager (if installed)	nvtuicpl.cpl
Object Packager	packager
ODBC Data Source Administrator	odbccp32.cpl
On Screen Keyboard	osk
Opens AC3 Filter (if installed)	ac3filter.cpl
Outlook Express	msimn
Paint	pbrush
Password Properties	password.cpl
Performance Monitor	perfmon.msc
Performance Monitor	perfmon
Phone and Modem Options	telephon.cpl
Phone Dialer	dialer
Pinball Game	pinball
Power Configuration	powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes	control printers
Printers Folder	printers
Private Character Editor	eudcedit
Quicktime (If Installed)	QuickTime.cpl
Quicktime Player (if installed)	quicktimeplayer
Real Player (if installed)	realplay
Regional Settings	intl.cpl
Registry Editor	regedit
Registry Editor	regedit32
Remote Access Phonebook	rasphone
Remote Desktop	mstsc
Removable Storage	ntmsmgr.msc
Removable Storage Operator Requests	ntmsoprq.msc
Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)	rsop.msc
Scanners and Cameras	sticpl.cpl
Scheduled Tasks	control schedtasks
Security Center	wscui.cpl
Services	services.msc
Shared Folders	fsmgmt.msc
Shuts Down Windows	shutdown
Sounds and Audio	mmsys.cpl
Spider Solitare Card Game	spider
SQL Client Configuration	cliconfg
System Configuration Editor	sysedit
System Configuration Utility	msconfig
System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately)	sfc /scannow
System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At The Next Boot)	sfc /scanonce
System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot)	sfc /scanboot
System File Checker Utility (Return Scan Setting To Default)	sfc /revert
System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache)	sfc /purgecache
System File Checker Utility (Sets Cache Size to size x)	sfc /cachesize=x
System Information	msinfo32
System Properties	sysdm.cpl
Task Manager	taskmgr
TCP Tester	tcptest
Telnet Client	telnet
Tweak UI (if installed)	tweakui
User Account Management	nusrmgr.cpl
Utility Manager	utilman
Windows Address Book	wab
Windows Address Book Import Utility	wabmig
Windows Backup Utility (if installed)	ntbackup
Windows Explorer	explorer
Windows Firewall	firewall.cpl
Windows Magnifier	magnify
Windows Management Infrastructure	wmimgmt.msc
Windows Media Player	wmplayer
Windows Messenger	msmsgs
Windows Picture Import Wizard (need camera connected)	wiaacmgr
Windows System Security Tool	syskey
Windows Update Launches	wupdmgr
Windows Version (to show which version of windows)	winver
Windows XP Tour Wizard	tourstart
Wordpad	write

Peeing in the shower: A green alternative to water wastage

Nasty. Gross. Call it what you wish. But consider this description: Eco-friendly. 
Those who know me – and even those who don’t – can attest to my love of the environment. I'm an Eco-Rep, so the environment and sustainable living is literally my life.
I talk a lot about recycling, reducing energy consumption…and saving water. Many of the bathrooms on campus have automatic flushing, something I’ve been trying to fight against so that excess water isn’t unnecessarily used. I struggled to find alternatives to automatic flushing. Getting it removed is something many students do not want. Getting flushing filters that flush at certain levels of excrement is expensive and a little disgusting.
In a completely unrelated thought bubble, I remembered a conversation a couple of my friends were having. They were disputing whether or not it is O.K. to pee in the shower. It’s clear that people go either one way or another on this issue. It’s either “Why the heck not?!” or “I ain’t doing that!” There is as much middle ground on this issue as there are NU students that hate the Tenderizer at Cheesie’s.
After talking with a friend, it occurred to me that the two ideas above are not as unrelated as I had originally thought. If peeing in the shower means less toilet usage, it also means less water being used to flush those toilets.
It sounds so simple: Peeing in the shower is good for the environment.
Flushing toilets makes up 27 percent of the total water usage in an average US household. Just think about how many times you and your family use your toilets at home, and how much water is wasted there. Now think of all the bathrooms on a college campus. There is so much water waste when using toilets here at NU. Trust me – I hear toilets flushing on repeat like I hear Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” on my iPod. DAS A LOT O’ FLUSHES.
And all those excessive toilet flushes, whether self-pressed or automatic, can easily be avoided by not even using a toilet in the first place.
People will obviously say that you don’t shower every time you pee. I’m definitely not saying to take a shower every time you pee. Dear lord. That’s just too much water waste for this environmentally savvy dude to think about.
Other people will say that you don’t pee every time you use a toilet (I’m going to let y’all think about the other options for using a toilet on your own). And even though these two statements are true, even one less toilet flush a day is a step closer to this “Green World” all your tree-hugger friends talk about.
The times that peeing in a urinal or toilet really strike me are when people go right before they take a shower. You are literally right about to step into the small cage that is an NU shower to wash all the filth off your over-worked, sleep-deprived body. Why not get rid of some of that inner filth as well?
Here is a challenge for all of you: When you’re about to shower, in the process of showering or finishing your shower, and you need to pee, don’t be afraid to let loose.
We all, hopefully, want this planet to stay functional. And a little multitasking in the shower will help us with our cause.

Apple Loop: Cook Unveils Mission Statement, iOS 7 Gets Colorful, New iPhone In The Fall

Keeping you in the loop about some of the things that happened around Apple this week.

Watch it from YouTube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZmIiIXuZ0&feature=player_embedded  

Designed by Apple in Cupertino. For those of us who attended the Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this week, it wasn’t the new operating systems, updated MacBook Air or Mac Pro preview that stood out. It was the mission statement and TV ad unveiled by CEO Tim Cook. Why? Well, for much of the past 16 years, Apple has been about show, not tell. They showed new products — candy-colored iMacs, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad — and we could see immediately how different, how elegant, how innovative they were. And even though showman Steve Jobs was a master at making users covet Apple’s technology, his superlatives – Amazing! Cool! Magical! – were really unnecessary because the products spoke for themselves. That’s why the new messaging is kind of curious. In both videos, Apple talks about what it takes for a product to bear the “Made by Apple in California” label rather than show its tech in action. Here’s the text from the 90-second mission statement, called “Intention.” Video above.

if everyone/ is busy making everything/how can anyone perfect anything?/we start to confuse convenience/with joy/abundance with choice./designing something requires/focus/the first thing we ask is/what do people want to feel?/delight/surprise/love/connection/then we begin to craft around our intention/it takes time…/there are thousand no’s/for every yes./we simplify/we perfect/we start over/until everything we touch/enhances each life/it touches./only then do we sign our work./Designed by Apple in California

I asked some marketing experts what they thought about Apple’s approach. Former Apple ad man Ken Segall says the ad, called “Our Signature,” is “filler” messaging until Apple delivers new products later this year. “If they had great products to talk about, we wouldn’t be seeing those ads. It is a bit defensive because they’re under attack, not just from Samsung, but also from all the critics out there because there are no new products. I think it is defensive – ‘We may not have new products, but we really work hard on these things. We don’t put our signature on it until it’s right.’” Hayes Roth of Landor Associates gives Apple kudos for the ad because it “supports how integrated Apple products are in one’s life. They really do enhance people’s lives, connecting across borders, cultures, languages, and experiences – whether in your personal or professional life – Apple has found a way to be a part of it. It truly is a lifestyle brand for the digital age, and while they may have a hiccup here and there, Apple remains a cult brand, and its consumers are some of the most loyal in the world. This ad does a great job of underscoring that, and bringing it to life in a real, tangible way.” Roth also says the ad and mission statement show that “it’s a new era” under Tim Cook. “It is really a signal of a very different attitude. Steve Jobs would have choked on that. He would probably have fired someone. It doesn’t make Tim Cook’s approach wrong. It just means it’s a new era.”

Color palette redux? Apple’s new version of the iOS mobile operating system – iOS 7 – features a new colors, a new font and new icons. It’s the first time the OS was created under the direction of design chief Jony Ive, who was named head of human interface last year. Rather than take the stage at WWDC, Ive explained the design goals behind iOS 7 in a seven-and-a-half-minute video (below). There are lots of opinions on the new OS – Senator John McCain is a fan already and thanked Apple for being so quick to incorporate the feature (automatic iPhone app updates) he asked Cook for during that Senate subcommittee hearing on taxes back in May. But most reviewers will wait until the fall when it’s released to offer their final verdict. I couldn’t help feeling that the new color palette seemed somehow familiar. When I got home, I dug out a bag I got back in May 1991 from Apple to celebrate the release of its System 7 operating system for the Mac. I knew I’d seen those reds and pinks before.

The iPhone countdown begins. The release of iOS 7 in “the fall” means that the new version of the iPhone will also be released then, since Apple typically ties the release of its newest smartphone to the latest OS. For the past year or more, there’s been speculation that Apple is working on higher-end iPhones with bigger screens as well as lower-priced models as part of a strategy to expand the audience for the device — just as it did with the iPod. So expect to see many stories in the coming months speculating on what those bigger and less-expensive models will look like. This week’s rumor: Apple may release the iPhone in different colors. Just remember the takeaway: new iPhone in the fall.
Did too. Did not. The Department of Justice’s case against Apple over e-book price fixing continued this week in New York federal court. The DOJ introduced an e-mail written by Steve Jobs and addressed to iTunes chief Eddy Cue, which the government said proves its case that Apple was colluding with publishers to force Amazon to adopt a new pricing scheme for e-books. The only thing is that Apple got up and said what the DOJ presented was a “draft” e-mail that Jobs never sent. The company then introduced the e-mail that Jobs actually did send to Cue, which lacks the reference to forcing Amazon to switch its pricing. Cnet has both emails here, and you can find all the government’s exhibits here. Cue, a key figure in the alleged price-fixing scheme, was in the courtroom yesterday to testify, and he said Jobs was reluctant to offer e-books on the iPad at all before agreeing to the idea a few months before the tablet was introduced. The trial before U .S. District Judge Denise Cote, who will decide the case without a jury, continues next week. The other interesting piece out of the courtroom this week: Apple says it has about a 20 percent share of the e-book market.
Steve Jobs stuff. JOBS, the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, is set to be released on Aug. 16. ….Musician Kanye West described himself this week as the Steve Jobs of the Internet. “I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means,” West told the New York Times. “ I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump. I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z.” Uh huh…And lastly, Apple fan sites were quick to note that Apple seems to be paying subtle tribute to Jobs in iOS 7: The heavy rectangular frames used for the “Add to Reading List” icon has been replaced with Jobs’ rimless spectacles.