iPhone 5. Major Win vs. Huge Disappointment

To tell the truth, it isn’t a surprise now that Apple Inc. remains in the public focus all the time, and any news or rumours, regarding the company’s products, are spread in a glimpse of an eye and further widely-discussed among users and IT experts.

Logically, the announced presentation of iPhone 5 on September, 12 has been a long-expected event for analysts and numerous admirers in different parts of the world. In fact, the promising release was somewhat a potentially miraculous device for everybody, no matter if a person is already acquainted with iPhones or not. And there you go, or better to say, there you have it, but what are the impressions?

Truth be told, I hoped for more. Back in the times when we just got the 4S version, iPhone 5 was like a future unattainable treasure for the majority of people, yet what they have eventually received appears to be nothing but an updated variation, but not the treasure, after all. 

The brand-new iPhone 5 has become a bit thinner, a bit narrower and a bit prolonged. It also features upgraded camera and screen peculiarities and has a lot to offer in terms of other functional aspects. Yet, is it a really revolutionary smartphone? It’s seemingly doubtful.

For what it takes, Apple has always been one step ahead both in exceeding our expectations and the opposing products. Nonetheless, the situation has, unfortunately, altered after Tim Cook had become in charge in the company. It’s not that he is a bad manager, it’s not even about  iPhone 5 being a bad device, but having witnessed so many inconceivable devices from the brand in the past, nothing but another miracle is suitable.

Yes, we are, perhaps, too fastidious, too picky, too demanding, but that’s, probably, the only logical evolution of consumer community, which can’t but happen with time. We all crave for the high-quality services, devices and products, so it won’t be a problem to move from iOS to Android in the same way like many of us have already moved from Dropbox to a more beneficial app 4Sync, for instance. Yes, we are picky, but what is even more crucial is that we deserve to have our opinion valued and appreciated.

Stay cool)

Andyc

Hackathon Reveals Numerous Talents. Meet MemStash

Without any doubt, TechCrunch Disrupt event can be named one of the most essential tech-related events of the year. Launched in San Francisco this time, the conference has gathered numerous IT specialists, including the more experienced experts and real newbies as well.

Along with the exhibition part, comprising creative presentations of young businesses, like the cloud ice cream treats from 4Sync, a great deal of fascinating things have also happened at Hackathon. The competition has unveiled multiple startup talents, among which MemStash Project plays one of the most prominent parts. 

The essence of MemStash is as simple as one can only imagine, as the app is designed to help people memorize stuff. At the same time, the innovative part is related to the ways, in which you are supposed to learn. In particular, the core principle of the service is developed on the basis of repetitive approach, so when you bookmark a certain part of text that you need to memorize, it’ll send you this piece via sms and e-mail, until you finally learn it.

Certainly, MemStash may be considered quite bothersome or even irritating by some people, but the main reason to try the app is that it’s really effective, no matter what the skeptics might claim. Like it or not, but you can’t help memorizing the foreign words, poems, telephone numbers or people’s faces, if you see them for multiple times and on the regular basis.

As MemStash authors state, the current app mode is only the beginning, and they’re planning to further upgrade it in the nearest future. As long as they remain as persistent as they are now, the chances to succeed are very high.

Startups’ Future Gets Brighter with AngelList Docs

It’s hard to argue with the fact that the introduction of crowdfunding and seed funding has opened a brand-new page in the IT world, where it’s far easier and quicker to start and develop your young business.

In fact, it’s really due to seed and crowdfunding, which has made it possible to realize creative ideas and further develop them, as long as you’ve got a convincing business plan for potential investors.

At the same time, it hasn’t been till now, that the actual results of successful deals (read: large money transactions) could be also conducted online within a resource, having brought investors and startup authors together. Well, the situation is likely to change for better, now that one of the major players in the niche AngelList introduces its Docs.

The essence of the project is absolutely simple: as long as the startup appears to have gathered sufficient amount of investors’ money, the deal can be so to say closed in the online mode. As soon as all required details (e.g. list of investors, total sum of money, etc.) are provided, AngelList Docs will create the term sheets and other agreement documents 100% automatically.

Not only the fresh project allows to spare time and efforts with the preparation of the mentioned papers, but as AngelList representatives claim, it will also enable to curtail formerly obligatory legal fees that are sometimes way too high to handle.

In a whole, with a great deal of rivals, including KickStarter and Y Combinator, for instance, that are today rapidly upgrading both the range and the quality of their services, Docs is what can really bring AngelList to the top of popularity among investors and, surely, startup creators as well.

Therefore, if you’re just thinking of founding your own business, it’d be helpful at least to check what Docs make possible for you to do, but only after you attend TechCrunch Disrupt 2012, SF.

That’s so as such a large-scale conference will open up a great deal of opportunities for startup authors, regarding their communication with other young, yet already successful IT companies and influential investors. As for “learning about others’ success part”, I’ve read that 4Sync will even be serving their special cloud ice-cream at the event, for example, so you will also have a chance to satisfy your physical, not just intellectual hunger.

Don’t miss your chance to take a step forward!

Oh, and stay cool)

Andy

ÜberGreat Taxis Got to “Uber” Service

If you’re still ordering taxis by phone being a US citizen, then you’re either fond of classics or a truly conservative person. Otherwise, you’d perhaps be for long get accustomed to getting a cab via the fresh convenient “Uber” service.

On to the Semantics

For those, who aren’t keen on German, the word Uber is recognized to be either a prefix or a preposition meaning “over/above”. In this respect, it’s absolutely logical, that the company founders have selected such a name for their enterprise.  

Pros vs. Cons

Believe it or not, but in some ways Uber is truly exceptional, even though I wouldn’t be sure it’s the very first rival in the relative niche. The taxi-ordering service also enables you to pay for the ride online, and the car is mostly provided exactly on time, so you don’t need to worry of being late for an important meeting or a flight, for instance.

At the same time, as there’s virtually nothing utterly perfect in the world, Uber has also got a few flaws of its own, like the price aspect, for example, or the necessity to take care of your payment account on a regular basis. Yet, are those real drawbacks?

For what it takes, no matter how much some people can argue, what we all crave for as consumers is comfort, and consequently, the simplicity of usage. Much because of that, Uber is a catch in the taxi-ordering sector, likewise as 4shared is a catch as the file storage, or Gmail is a catch as an e-mail service. It’s just the objective perspective.

Is it an E-Mail War? Microsoft Introduces Outlook.com

How it Was and Is

For what it takes, Microsoft belongs to one of the largest and the most powerful IT companies in the world, having millions of fans and admirers around the globe. Yet, the enterprise has somehow started losing its user ratings lately, much due to the growing demands for convenience and simplicity of its services. In particular, Microsoft’s old-known Outlook Express has already become quite an old-fashioned one among the range of e-mail options and is rarely used these days.

On the contrary, Google is generally considered a highly innovative company that invests much in making its products as user-friendly as possible, including perhaps the most popular e-mail service in the world Gmail.

How can it be?

Apparently, Microsoft has got sick and tired of its reputation to be an old-school IT competitor in the e-mail niche, as it’s recently presented its Outlook.com. As it’s stated, the fresh mailing rival is absolutely beneficial to try and can even overpower Gmail in its features. 

As the authors of Outlook.com pinpoint, the most obvious advantages of the service are related to seemingly unlimited amount of space for letters, its integration with famous social networks and the possibility to create e-mail aliases for users’ convenience, not to mention the available WYSIWYG editor.

Sounds awesome, right?

 

How will it be?

Surely, it goes without saying that Microsoft has put incredible efforts into the development of Outlook.com, and the service can’t simply be a huge disappointment. At the same time, it’s seemingly doubtful that a lot of Gmail fans will move onto using the fresh rival. Why not? Well, it’s crystal clear: as long as you’re absolutely satisfied with what you have, you won’t bother to change your preferences. Likewise as with Gmail, you wouldn’t bother to move from the beloved Internet browser, music player or even file storage, like 4shared, for example. What for?

Therefore, even though Outlook.com has good chances to find its devoted admirers, all talks about its future conquer of the e-mail world can be considered a good joke. At least, that’s how I see it.

Stay cool)

Andy

Innovative Search Options: BitLy Takes a Step

It has become pretty common lately to shorten long links and make them simpler to share with others. I wouldn’t even exaggerate to state that the majority of us are quite accustomed to using services, like BitLy for the described so to say “shortening” purpose.

This is how it was in the past. The thing is that from now on, BitLy isn’t only specialized in one specific niche, but is likely to expand its fame to a considerable extent, having introduced its search engine for trendy links in social media. Someone would, perhaps, say that this sector is totally occupied by Google for good, but they might happen to be wrong.

The reason is that what RealTine by BitLy offers is not really the search engine we’re more acquainted with: it enables users to define a number of search parameters, which help specify and acquire the most relative results. Similarly to what 4shared.com, for instance, offers to define to find the needed file, the new service provides the options to narrow the results to particular social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr), geographical location, language and sphere in addition to the entered keyword. 

Being now available in its closed beta version only, RealTime is accessible to BitLy registered users, and you need to have your sign-up application approved. Fortunately, the approval usually takes little time (at least mine was checked within a few minutes), so you don’t have to wait to start surfing for the trendy links. At the same time, be prepared to find out that the received results aren’t always satisfactory either in the quantity of links or their actual relativity.

For what it takes, BitLy has always had something innovative from the moment the service entered the market, and the creation of RealTime works as the perfect proof of such statement. Who cares that it won’t, obviously, become the next Google for trendy links, if it still provides us with something highly significant: the choice of which app or service to opt for.

Facebook Ads: Targeting Digs into Mobile Apps

It became clear quite a while ago that one of the weakest aspects in the profitability of Facebook was related to the monetization of mobile audience, that is, getting more revenue from users, who access FB on their smartphones and tablets. Therefore, as soon as the owners of the service were done with the IPO fuss, they got down to business.

As for now, it’s already possible to browse the first steps in the company’s new mobile ad strategy: FB has integrated specific mobile app targeting options, which enable track, which apps are installed on their gadgets and thus display only related ads in the mobile version of the site.

Such app targeting innovations are, undoubtedly, essential for Facebook and can increase the company’s profits to a considerable extent. The definition of what mobile applications people are using, will, actually, enable to figure out what users wish to have, what they are willing to pay and give them the ad they will respond to. Not bad, ha? 

Certainly, the introduced differentiated mobile app ads appear to be much better, than just the usage of provided basic users’ info, like personal interests or place of birth, for instance. Moreover, it hides so much potential that can, in fact, make Facebook owners much wealthier, than they hope. Yet, is it just?

With the time on, our personal data becomes more and more accessible to versatile services, leaving no space for what we used to know as “private”. It sometimes seems that we are always watched or tracked by someone, who can use the information, which isn’t supposed to become public, when it’s necessary.

Obviously, the reasons why Facebook mobile ads dive more into our lives through newly-added targeting options are related to money, but there should surely be predefined the line of privacy, which the companies should be forbidden to go beyond.

I often miss the times, when the information you provide only included the chosen name, e-mail address and password, like it is still required at 4shared, nothing more, so that I can keep what I like, who I know and apps I use to myself. 

Stay cool)

Andy

Design Gets into Limelight at Gojee

Naturally, the changes in the IT world are mostly continuous and totally inevitable. Some of these are relatively minor and mostly concern the shift of audience’s life interests (the shift of popularity between music and photo applications, for instance), whereas others are much more important, including the priority level of services’ design and functionality.

Essentially speaking, it’s been for long now that the functionality of a device or a service has been taken as the prior notion. Even though Apple has brought back the image-focused gadgets with their iPhones and iPads, no one would dare say those are inferior in functionality in any way.

As for the apps and services, the functionality remains at the top, leaving the design peculiarities behind. It would be basically enough to create a high-quality logo, select the colourscheme and the fonts, other that that, it’s vital to care about the features, in the first place.

At the same time, there can be distinguished a few exceptions of a rule, as a number of services have opted for making the service’s design its most efficient part. Among these, one of the recipe-sharing sites Gojee can be easily called the embodiment of great design solutions and exquisite style.

The overall delighted impression about Gojee is, perhaps, influenced by the initial purpose of its creation – sharing of recipes. In this respect, the full-screen background picture of dishes and drinks is what every visitor craves for, whereas the fast sliding bar enables to check the available variety of cooking instructions. At the same time, what Gojee lacks is, obviously, the powerful functional basis, as there’s neither a convenient search option nor the mere division of recipes into categories, for example.

For what it takes, the notion of balance appears to be the most valuable thing in the IT industry anyway. No matter if it is a gadget, an app or a service, it has good chances to become globally popular, as the grandees, e.g. Facebook, Google or 4shared, in case both the functional and the design aspects are taken care of.

Stay cool)

Andy

ThisLife: Do We Really Need More Photo-Sharing Options?

The reasons why we desperately need photo-hosting and sharing services can’t ever be disputed, that’s for sure. It’s not even about our natural desire to boast about our photographer talents all around the Web among people we know and those, who aren’t that lucky yet. Just picture the day when you’re phone suddenly deletes all photos or videos, which you’ve taken on it. It’s scary, isn’t it? Well, this is what photo-sharing services are about – to make your life simpler and calmer, at least as far as the safety of your digital masterpieces is concerned.

Logically, there have been introduced a lot of photo-hosting and sharing resources, like Tumblr or Flickr, not to mention Instagram (now owned by FB), which already have millions of users and devoted fans all over the world. Yet strangely, the new players on the market are continuously introduced to the public even now, though the current selection is more, than sufficient.

One of the mentioned services, for instance, is known to be called ThisLife and is specifically aimed at sharing photos and videos among the family members. In this respect, whereas it’s totally understandable, why the authors have launched it (to take the barely occupied market niche and earn some money), it’s still pretty hard to grasp, why ThisLife would attract the attention of millions.

It’d be, certainly, inappropriate to say that the service is 100% useless, as it features well-designed photo-album layout and the overall UI is rather convenient in usage. Yet, is it special? That’s the question. Likewise as its ancestors, ThisLife enables group sharing of photos, different view modes and the opportunity to upload versatile family videos as well. At the same time, the storage space for loads of supposedly funny stuff is limited, so you will have to pay to share more, than 1000 photos (that is use more than 5GB of space).

Moreover, there can also be a sort of hidden disadvantage both in ThisLife and the similar small or mid-sized photo-sharing services – data security. Even if you can believe in the fact that your password is never uncovered (as it happened with Dropbox users), who can guarantee that your photos won’t disappear, when the service becomes clearly unprofitable and is shut down?

Of course, we all decide for ourselves, which photo-hosting to use, and which not to. As for me, I belong to people, who prefer keeping all files at one hand, not remember numerous passwords. For those, like me, separate photo-sharing sites aren’t needed, especially if they use 4shared or any other file storage for saving and sharing data. 

Stay cool)

Andy

Ubokia & Its Reverse Sales – Possible Advantages

It’s been a tradition both in real-time and online retail industries to use the well-known working scheme in the business: a potential buyer checks the diversity of supply and selects the desirable goods. As for now, either because of the changed consumers’ preferences, or the growing competition on the market, there have already been presented fresh services with the so to say “reversed focus”.

Aiming to satisfy customers’ tastes and wishes to the fullest, an array of brand-new online retail services are offering their clients to post info about the goods they need and let the sellers contact them themselves. In this respect, one of the major rivals is recognized to be Ubokia, offering to simplify the search for a desirable product.

The essence of Ubokia is crystal clear: as a user, you get an opportunity to inform the sellers of what you wish to purchase by posting your WANTS, yet this is far not the only option to select from. It’s also possible to browse what other people’s wish to buy, or even sell something.

Moreover, the essential advantages of Ubokia lie in users’ ability to define versatile details, like the group of goods or the needed location, while browsing others’ WANTS, which makes the purchasing process even simpler.

For what it takes, Ubokia is seemingly a beneficial service for people, who are willing to purchase online, but aren’t willing to surf for the best offer for a long time. At the same time, it’s rather questionable, whether the site will become a global passion, as many of us don’t have enough time to wait, until the sellers send their offers.

As for the general outlook at the ideas, which Ubokia uses, these are, undoubtedly, advantageous both for buyers and sellers. No wonder that the similar ones have already been implemented in a large number of services, like social media sites, for instance. In particular, Facebook usually sends friend or article suggestions, whereas Twitter allows users to browse through trending topics at the site. Likewise, 4shared file storage enables you to check the top searches in various categories, so that you can find what you need easier.

Thus, all we can say now is: good luck, Ubokia, and thanks for your broad vision.

Stay cool)

Andy

United Online Buys SchoolFeed – Social Networks Prove Alive

Ok, if to be completely honest, I consider myself as one of the skeptics, who can’t wait for the moment of social networking sites’ decay. Yet, the current deals on the IT market somehow prove the pessimistic forecasts wrong.

It has already become clear that the populatity of SM monsters, like Facebook, for instance, won’t deteriorate at least in the nearest five years. Both the company’s purchases of Instagram & Glancee and the development of segmented FB apps for photos, videos, and so on, have sustained its top-position in the eyes of potential partners and users.

Moreover, it has recently become crystal clear that smaller social networks, which are likely to focus on specific audience, have also got their more or less prosperous future. In particular, the popular service SchoolFeed, offering users to browse through numerous uploaded yearbooks and find former school friends,  has been just bought by a large IT enterprise United Online (the parent company of Classmates and other services).

Why this deal is rather significant in terms of the social media perspectives is that United Online has apparently got plans for uniting the mentioned SchoolFeed with their own service Classmates to create one powerful social network out of two. Its functionality will certainly expand from simple browsing through versatile yearbooks or school alumni and will, perhaps, enable to back up the found friends’ photos somewhere else in the cloud, not just within users’ profiles.

Of course, it’s hard to predict, whether such function will really be implemented, but if it is, my personal preferences would go to 4shared. First of all, I’ve already got my account there and, secondly, because the amount of provided space and a wide range of disposible features are totally striking.

Well, we’ll see.

Stay cool)

Andy

Will HR Industry Get Smarter with Smarterer?

Since hiring the best personnel is recognized to be one of the most important factors, if you wish to succeed in your business, no matter what industry you’re working in, various HR-focused services have also become highly popular on the market.

Most of these, like Jobvite, which simplifies the hiring process using referrals, social networks and even e-mails to invite a desirable talented candidate to a job interview, are oriented on finding the very best employees for the company, so that one would invest all his/her talent, creativity and efforts to make the enterprise prosper.

Other services, on the contrary, help acknowledge all possible pros and cons of the company that is going to offer you a job, or has already done that. Considering your future employer’s intentions to use all your creativity and efforts, as it’s been mentioned above, it would be great to find out, what you will gain instead (e.g. social bonuses, vacation, flexible working schedule or else). The most famous one among these is, undoubtedly, GlassDoor that helps you find out all about the “real company face”.

Moreover, there has recently been introduced one more HR-focused service, which would be potentially advantageous both to employers and employees, as far as its authors are sure of, - Smarterer.

For what is worth, Smarterer is really unique to a considerable extent, much because it uses a somewhat different approach, moving away from resumes, social media profiles and referrals to the professional skill tests as one of the most essential aspects in hiring a person.

One the one hand, such an innovative vision might be useful for HR managers, who are constantly looking for the fastest and the simplest ways to hunt the best of the best. Nonetheless, there are also quite a lot of drawbacks in Smarterer service. To start with, the skill quizzes presuppose timing for each question, so if you need do some thinking over the right answer, your chances to fail are rather high. Besides, the quizzes contain a limited number of questions, so even if you don’t know the answers to all of them, it can’t really prove the fact that you’re not a pro in the subject. Likewise, you can always guess them, so the quiz doesn’t fully show any of your skills.

Anyhow, it would be wrong to say that Smarterer is totally useless. You can check your skills at least just for yourself. At least, I’ve even saved several of screens with my results at my account at 4shared already to boast about how good I am, perhaps, in future. Fortunately, there’s still much space from 15 free 15GB left.

Stay cool)

Andy

Image is Everything. Piccsy Causes Stir with its Pitchdeck

For what it takes, the current versatility of photo-oriented sites is absolutely stunning. Of course, there are the old-known rivals, like Flickr or Tumblr, offering users the possibility to create their own photo-blogs, browse others’ works, store and share their masterpieces with others. At the same time, an array of newbies, like Pinterest, or Imgur, for instance, is somewhat innovative, but their aim is pretty similar, being the global sharing of beautiful, funny or simply unusual photos.

Nonetheless, despite a wide range of useful and convenient features, available for users, most photo-hosting and photo-sharing apps and services don’t pay likewise as much attention to their own image, at least as far as their pitchdecks for investors are concerned. It is even better to put it this way: either they pay insufficient attention to those or just don’t show them publicly to users, so it’s hard to evaluate, how creative such pitchdecks, actually, are.

Anyway, there are freshmen on the photo-sharing market, like Piccsy, who have opted for public description of their benefits at the official site in the bright, colourful and, what is important, comprehensive pitchdeck, which overplays many of the popular pitchdeck templates.

It is not that there appears the instant desire to name Piccsy the top app among the others (I still can’t handle any service, except for 4shared, for storing and sharing all my files, including photos), but if I were a wealthy man, I would certainly think about investing in it.

As for average users, they will certainly appreciate the service that finds it essential to maintain its trustworthy and positive image.

All things considered,  there can be formulated some helpful advice for photo-oriented startups, or even any startups in general: as long as your business is still at the stage of its early development, don’t forget that your image is vitally important, so make sure that it’s the way you wish it to be. In this respect, your pitchdeck IS your image to a considerable extent, thus do everything to make it intelligible, creative and bright.

Oh…and stay cool)

Andy

Successful Facebook IPO –What's Now

It would be too less to say that the whole world has been expecting FB IPO for quite a long time. This has become one of the most media-covered and discussed events in the global IT world with incredible amount of gossip regarding its possible results and consequences. Now that the IPO day has passed, the only thing left is to analyze.

To start with, although many skeptics had been questioning the high stock price before Facebook IPO started, the results of the offering have exceeded their expectations. With initially established stock price of $28-35, the eventual price of each stock on May, 18 reached $38, 37 at the closing point, whereas the very first part of them was sold for $42 each. In a whole, the overall capitalization of Facebook is now estimated at almost $104 billion.

What is essential, such successful results could even be better, perhaps, if to consider the technical hurdles during the day, which NASDAQ has already apologized for.

Guess what’s now?

Now that Mr. Zuckerberg has become a much wealthier man, it seems that Facebook has proven its reputation of the globally popular service, along with Google, and Twitter, and 4shared, and will certainly have a cloudless future, at least as far as the upcoming years are concerned.

As for the received money, the company has already claimed the focus-dimensions of further development, which the funds will be invested to. In particular, FB is planning to sustain and improve its positions in the mobile sector, not to mention the general technological innovations, expected to be added soon.

Undoubtedly, such plans for investments in this niche are 100% justified, as Facebook truly needs to develop its mobile sector to a considerable extent. The essential difficulty, in this respect, is related to the importance of monetizing the company’s audience via mobile ads, which aren’t now sufficiently profitable. Thus, the further strategy should definitely include the wider involvement of the audience, which would help maximize the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns.

Stay cool)

Andy

Google Drive – Expectations vs. Reality

It has finally happened; Google has officially launched its syncing service, Google Drive, which had been announced almost half a year earlier. Shortly after the release of GDrive, as it’s frequently called now, its features have been already described in details by a great deal of online tech portals.

With such a wide PR campaign in the media, GDrive should be not less, than a masterpiece, as one may think, right? At least, it should include incredible advantages in comparison with other services on the market. Yet...well, it’s doesn’t.

It would be inappropriate, or I even dare say wrong to state that Google Drive is full of drawbacks or is inferior to what the users have been offered by other IT companies before. The quality of the service is absolutely sufficient for usage, whereas the syncing speed can satisfy the preferences of an average user.

Moreover, what is also beneficial about GDrive is the total security of your data, supposedly guaranteed by the fact that Google is such a reputable corporation, that it just can’t possibly fail in keeping your files safe.

At the same time, there isn’t anything state-of-the art in the service, as many experts admit. It’s good, but it doesn’t have anything special to overcome the rivals. You only get 5GB for free, whereas the users of 4Sync still receive the whole 15GB of free space. It enables you to upgrade for a 25GB or a 100GB or even a 1TB package for a relatively small sum of money (only a $2,49 monthly fee for 15GB, for instance), but yet you have got to pay to expand your storage space.

It is surely crystal clear that you can’t but face the necessity to purchase a certain product, especially if it’s an exquisite one, but would you pay for a product, which can be got for free?

That is the question. 

Stay cool)

Andy

Can CitizenMade Satisfy our Hunger for Uniqueness?

It goes without saying that we all strive to be unique in our entity, tastes and preferences, even though we may show our conformist views openly. In this respect, the goods we purchase can also be taken as the reflection of our unique personality. Much because of this, customized products are recognized to be one of the most profitable niches on the retail market, including e-commerce field as well.

Nonetheless, online purchases of customized goods turn out to be a bit more complicated matter, much because users’ orders require the definition of numerous essential parameters beforehand. At least, this is how the things used to be like in the past until the brand-new service Citizen Made claimed to offer the most convenient solution, aimed at simplifying online purchases of customized goods.

What Citizen Made provides retailers with is the special software, which allows opting for certain characteristic features of goods, so that those will fit users’ tastes to the fullest.

Possible Underwater Stones

The solution, offered by Citizen Made, is, undoubtedly, beneficial for the majority of small and mid-sized e-commerce companies, which is, by the way, free for everyone’s usage. Supposedly, it should become a total must-have for online retailers, right? Now wait a minute…

Despite the fact, that the authors of Citizen Made state their service is free, they also mention that you are to pay them 2% of your earnings from every purchase made. Of course, it doesn’t look like a lot of money, yet if the goods you’re selling are pretty much expensive, you’ll have to count the actual sum you’ll have to give away.

Moreover, in spite of Citizen Made being rather helpful in making online purchases effortless, the first and the foremost thing is attracting more clients and users, who care more about their money security, than the convenience of e-commerce site UI.

In this respect, if you wish to maximize your profits, you should pay attention to placing one of the trustmarks to the site, like the one, provided by ITM Secure, for instance, and then try Citizen Made…or not. That is your own choice, actually.

Stay cool)

Andy

Monolith Takes Further Steps to Augumented Reality

It is now definite, that augumented reality segment goes into limelight of IT world as one of the most promising ones. Despite the fact, that the sector of the industry is relatively young, it has, undoubtedly, beome the new passion for a great number of reputable companies, engaged in IT.

Along with ambitious and well-promoted Google Project Glass, which has been recently officially presented to the open public, there has already been introduced another player, involved in augumented reality projects. In particular, I’m talking about a Croatian startup Monolith offering 3 serapate applications for advertisers, namely Monolith Wardrobe, Monolith Games and Monolith Objects.

In this respect, there can be distinguished several essential peculiarities of products, offered by Monolith, the first and the foremost among which is certainly, the uniqueness of the ideа in the essence of the engine. 

I’m sure that the majority of average users haven’t actually thought of using Kinect elsewhere, other than in their xBox, well, Monolith developers went further. Having built their applications on the basis of Kinect hardware, they have also added their exclusive software solution, enabling to create a movie-like advertising experience, achieving impressive results.

Here, the focus on advertising is, perhaps, another essential feature of Monolith products. Obviously, it’s rather about online and mobile ads being the most popular, effective and profitable ones at the moment, that the live ones. Relatively, innovative online ad platforms, like Epom, for instance, are now getting trendier and trendier today. Yet, the current tendencies doesn’t prove the death of live advertising, so the authors of Monolith have made the right decision to reanimate this niche of the market with their fresh and creative solutions.

In addition to that, what is also special about Monolith augumented reality advertising engine is that it has been founded not in the USA, which is frequently considered the epicenter of IT development, but in Croatia, that hasn’t yet got such reputation.

Does the apperance of Monolith mean that the vector of rapid IT development is moving from the US to Europe, considering that the already-mentioned platform Epom has been also started in Europe as well, namely Poland? In fact, it does more likely mean that the there will soon appear numerous regional IT centers all around the world, all being somewhat unique in their entity.

Well, we’ll see)

Stay cool)

Andy

CloudFlare Widens Horizons for Sites' Improvement

Do you happen to own a site? Even if you don’t at the moment, you will, perhaps, get one, as long as you run the business of your own or are more or less interested in blogging, for instance.

The thing is that the boost in development of Internet technologies and the colossal growth of popularity of online resources force the businesses in almost every niche to maintain their presence on the Web.

Well, there you go. In case you have a business, you must have a site.

Yet, the maintenance of a site, especially if you wish to make it rich and bright in the interface and multifunctional,  is a far more complicated matter, than just the creation of one. In this respect, one of the fresh services on the market CloudFlare happens to offer convenient tool to protect and improve your site’s work.

One of the essential aspects, which CloudFlare enables you to upgrade, is the loading time of your site. It often happens so, that the large sites with complex graphics and sufficient amount of ad content load rather slowly, which irritates visitors and can even make them refuse to ever try the service again.

Well, as the creators of CloudFlare state, their featured optimizer can help your site load really fast, which is incredibly encouraging.

Another essential feature, offered by CloudFlare, is related to the site’s security. It is, actually, one of the most painful aspects of every site’s work, which can either benefit your reputation, or totally destroy it.  Much because of that, the majority of trustworthy companies pay much attention to proving their reliability and safety to clients.

As an example, I’ve recently found the news that 4shared established partnership with McAfee security company to double-check all files in their database. Not bad, or I’d say even grrrreat!

Back to what CloudFlare can provide you with in terms of security, the service enables you to detect hacker attacks, create block lists and trust lists for your visitors, etc. within convenient UI.

The last but not the least…

CloudFlare is also recognized to provide you with traffic analytics for your site, which is one of the most important aspects in terms of sites’ promotion.

Of course, you can stick to using Google Analytics, it won’t be a problem.

All things considered, CloudFlare is, undoubtedly, worth trying, especially if you need to make your site more reputable and popular among users.

Stay cool)

Andy

Codecademy Opens One More Door to Coding Secrets

Have you ever dreamt of becoming a programmer? I have never thought about such a perspective as a child, but having grown up I realized how interesting and profitable! it can be to be engaged in this niche.

Well, now that I have already become a developer myself I have never questioned the rightness of my former decision, but what about people, who have realized their pure desire to learn programming already being adults? Of course, it’s never late to learn.

Yet, what if you didn’t have a chance to go study in the university at the moment? The reasons may differ, in this respect, either you don’t have enough money to pay for studying, or you don’t have sufficient time to attend classes because of your full-time job. Are there any ways out to have the most convenient learning conditions? Yes, now there are.

People’s opportunity to acquire knowledge of programming or share the already possessed skills is actually the essence of a rather new service Codecademy, enabling to learn and practice Java programming without any payment. What is essential, the choice of language in Codecademy is absolutely justified, as it is now the most widely-used one in the creation of high-quality sites with the best graphics and the most intuitive UI (e.g. TechCrunch, Facebook, 4shared sites are created with the usage of Java). 

As for the specifics of the learning courses, here’s where the benefits for users continue. To start with, each and every exercise is provided with precise instructions, so that you don’t spend hours perusing the same passage for 1, 000 of times. Moreover, you can practice the newly-got knowledge right at the page, where the exercise is being explained with an ability to check FAQ’s, if you happen to be stuck at some point. In this respect, even if you can’t find the answer to your question, you’re free to post it in the section, so that it can be answered a bit later. To be honest, there’re a lot of questions, which haven’t yet been answered, but minor flaws are inevitable, I suppose.

In addition to that, every section of the course is finished with a particular number of points you receive and a sort of the award you also get. Of course, it’s not an actual prize, but works well as motivation.

And it isn’t the end… Codecademy also enables the users to apply for becoming a beta tester in versatile courses, no matter how much knowledge you already have. This might be really beneficial in terms of practicing acquired skills.

In a whole, of course, Codecademy isn’t enough for you to become a superprofessional in programming, but it is seemingly the perfect first step into the world of coding. Not bad, ha?

Stay cool)

Andy