December 9, 2011
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You can still use PhoneGap for this but it also simulates all types of phones (not just iPhone), and a map to change your location as well as cloud services.
November 28, 2011
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The use of mobile devices is exploding. And even better, so are purchases made from these devices. So the question is ‘Is your website usable from a mobile device?’
I recently purchased an iPad and the reason may surprise you. I work from home and rarely go out, so why would I need an iPhone and an iPad? Yes I am on the desktop/laptop computer a lot but there are times when I am not. Some call those times ‘the in-between moments’, lying on the couch, watching TV, cooking, letting my dog out to go to the bathroom, and some even use them on the toilet. I can now watch tutorials and read PDFs from the comfort of my couch or bed without having to sit in a chair (which I do all day for the most part). As I started to surf and read things on my iPhone I realized it would be nicer to have a bigger screen but still be able to be away from my computer.
The surprising thing was how hard many websites are to use from a mobile device. They are often too big and so you have to scroll over, menus are hard to click on without zooming in, etc. With all the ‘real estate’ we’ve had on desktop computers, we’ve tended to fill all the available space with crap. So mobile devices can help us rethink our design.
So with this knowledge it is advisable to make sure your website is usable on various sizes of devices. You don’t necessarily have to run out and build an app but setup a mobile site for your customers or better yet (and more involved) create a website that can respond to all sorts of devices dynamically. The benefit of a separate mobile site is that you can eliminate a lot of information that would normally flow to one’s device which can cause performance isssues due to limited bandwidths. We can often ‘hide’ information from the devices but it still gets passed to the device.
November 18, 2011
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For years I’ve seen business paying tens of thousands of dollars to have a website developed and they still have to pay for the site to be updated/maintained. This always frustrated me especially with great open source tools like WordPress. Now a similar frustration is happening in the mobile application space.
The common wisdom these days if you are a business owner is ‘We need an app’. This wisdom should be challenged especially with the recent developments in web technologies. Mobile app development can be expensive and you have to create and maintain an app for each device’s operating system (iOS for Apple, Blackberry, Windows, Android, etc). And if customers don’t have a need to check your site on a regular basis they probably won’t want to install an app just for your business. But if you still insist on an app there is a better way to go about it. So most likely you don’t need an app. Even Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google agrees.
Technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript allow you to develop a website that acts like a mobile app when viewed from a device and with PhoneGap the same code can be used to create an app. And with this design you can also have an app but it would use the same code as your website. With tools like jQTouch you can also have all the slick functionality of an app (slides, flips, touch, etc). Most sites that aren’t developed for a mobile device are hard to view and use on a mobile device, giving way to a negative view about mobile websites. But jQTouch and other technologies along with better design has changed the landscape (pardon the pun!).
Technologies like PhoneGap blur the line between app and website even further. It allows you to leverage your website content and build an app around it, while giving you access to the devices features such as GPS, Accelerometer, Contacts, etc. You might still need an app if you are creating a game or you want to sell your app on Apple’s App Store (which most businesses wouldn’t).
So if you’re considering a mobile app for your business make sure you aren’t dealing with the bias of the app developer and that you leverage your online content and recent technologies.
September 4, 2011
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After a few years of paying for email newsletter services such as GetResponse and Aweber, I decided to switch to using a free WordPress plugin. This is for a free reasons – saving money, more control, annoyance at reduced features and increasing monthly fees, and so on.
Luckily there is a great WP-Autoresponder plugin for WordPress, and it’s free.
Before you switch over there are few things you’ll need to do before you cancel your account with your provider.
1. Export the users from your provider
Most providers such as GetResponse allow you to export your users into a comma-separated (csv) file (eg. will kriski, myemail@aol.com). There’s usually a lot of information saved for each user but all you will need is their name and email address. You might have different lists for different websites/segmented lists. Export each one separately if you need to.
2. Install the plugin, set up the newsletter, autoresponder series
You can install the plugin directly from WordPress now, just go to ‘Add new’ and type in autorersponder in the search box, then install WP-Autoresponder and set up the newsletter and autoresponder (links in menu of plugin)
3. Import the users from your paid provider.
Go the Import/Export menu item for the Autoresponder and import the csv file you exported above. You might want to set up different newsletters if you’ve segmented your list.
4. Export/import the users from your WordPress blog subscription
5. Delete any users that bounce back after you email them
Since you’re now using your own hosting provider to email you will receive the emails that can’t be delivered. Copy the email address in the search box (on the subscribers page) and once you find each one, delete it from your system. I had a list for many years so there were some invalid email addresses on it.
If you already had users who subscribed to your blog in WordPress (or joined as members to a membership site), you’ll have to transfer them over to your new newsletter(s) (separate from regular users). I use the free WP-Export Users plugin. Export your users (using the fields ‘display name’ and email address) making them comma-separated. Cut and paste the list into a plain text file, then import them as you did for the paid provider file.
Emails will go out if you have an autoresponder set up for ‘Day 0′ so if this is a problem, don’t set up the autoresponder before you import the lists. Also users won’t have to double-opt in (confirm their email address) which is great because you don’t want to have to get them to reconfirm again.
Good luck and let me know if you get this working.