An essential marketing product for all

In tough times marketing budgets are often hit first which is why Nottingham-based reseller Tim Glynn is hoping industry peers will pick up on a new idea to help generate awareness and sales. 

It’s an online tool called VBook which allows resellers to create a page turning brochure, sales leaflet or newsletter for a fraction of the time and cost it would take to produce a printed version.  Once produced the VBook can be emailed to clients and prospects.  It is also a useful awareness raiser for charity promotions. 

“As a small business I can see many uses,” Said Glynn.  “It also fits in with our Adodo Community initiative raising money for charities and good causes.”  You can trial the VBook using this link:  My VBook

Wi-Fi for ‘Glampers’

With more people opting to holiday in the UK this year, there has been a significant rise in ‘glamping’, also known as glamorous camping.

This has led to an massive rise in Wi-Fi usage at UK holiday sites. According to figures released by BT Openzone, this explosion of Wi-Fi usage took the figures up 350% in the first two weeks of the summer holidays.

During the unpredictable summer weather it is thought that holiday-makers turned to there iPhones, iPads and other smartphones for inspiration and entertainment.

BT’s Broadband milestone

Fifteen million homes and small businesses are now accessing broadband over BT’s network as the telecoms giant reached a significant milestone last month. 

In August 2002 BT had approximately 200,000 broadband connections, which means that they have added 14.8 million in the last eight years.  If you do the maths, that equates to more than 5,000 new broadband connections a day.

Happy Birthday Google

It’s been a mixed bag of fortunes over the last twelve months for the Global Giant’s Google, as their street view has faced constant controversy and there was a cautious reaction to Google Instant. But today they are on top of the world as they celebrate their 12th birthday.

 “Google Birthday” is the top search term in the US at the moment according to Google trends, but not only that, they are topping the trends on Twitter as well.
 To mark the special occasion, Google has replaced its usual logo with a picture of a birthday cake. The image is called Happy 12th Birthday Google and is by Wayne Thiebaud, the 89-year-old American artist.

Quote for the Week!

“The key to change... is to let go of fear.”

Rosanne Cash

Mobile phones offer medical solutions to the developing world

The journey of the mobile phone over the last twenty years has been incredible. It has gone from being used just for making calls and sending texts to a serious and sophisticated bit of kit.

So serious, says Professor Ramesh Raskar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, that - with a few tweaks here and there - they could begin to replace expensive scientific and medical equipment.


He believes that there is a clear gulf in the medical facilities that are available in the developing and the developed world. He believes that mobile phone technology could bridge that gap, and he is not alone in his thinking.


In the last two years alone, Professor Ramesh Raskar says, the resolution of these devices has increased six fold, with some now boasting over 300 dots per inch (dpi). Equivalent to that found on high end scientific equipment.


He is currently working on a device called the Near Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (Netra), a cheap clip-on gadget, which can be used to diagnose eye conditions such as nearsightedness and farsightedness.


"Look through it and it gives you your prescription," he said.


In California, Professor Aydogan Ozcan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is working on a mobile replacement for the microscope.


There is a flurry of experimental technology taking a hold of engineers across the world. The power of the mobile platform offers such potential that this will just be the beginning.


"The cellphone holds huge promise," Professor Aydogan Ozcan said. "It has become like a Swiss-army knife".

Social Networking Giant to break into Mobile Market

Facebook has announced that it intends to delve deeper into the mobile phone market, but has denied rumours that it intends to build its own smartphone.

Reports over the weekend on technology site TechCrunch.com suggested Facebook is "secretly building a phone".


A spokesperson rubbished that report though saying the story "was not accurate" and that the company "is not building a phone".

There's no doubt that Facebook is eager to push itself further into the mobile world. Last week launching ‘Places’ in the UK following releases in the US and Japan earlier this month. Aimed at the site's 150 million users who access it through their mobiles it's that kind of service a Facebook spokesperson said it was keen to develop.

"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they are social," the spokesperson said.


"So integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this.”

Quote for the Week!

"We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired to glory."

Cicero

Nokia loses 2 executives in a week!

Anssi Vanjoki only started with Nokia in July 2010, but only two months later he has already handed in his notice. That is the second high-profile executive to quit the Mobile phone giant in the space of a week.

Last Friday Microsoft’s Stephen Elop was appointed as the firms new chief executive. He is the first non-Finn to head Nokia.


On his first day in the job Mr. Vanjoki seemed determined to lead Nokia’s fightback against the companies biggest smartphone competitors. Despite being the world's biggest smartphone seller, Nokia has been losing the publicity battle with Google's Android operating system and Apple's iPhone.


He will now serve his six months notice. The announcements come ahead of Nokia World, the firm's annual conference, which begins on the 14 September in London.

Quote for the Week!

"If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius."

Jospeph Addison

Internet Searching At The Speed of Thought

Google have launched their new product this week that is set to significantly speed up its internet search engine facilities. So fast they have described it as "search at the speed of thought".



It’s called Google Instant and it predicts a user's query and modifies the displayed results as more letters are typed into the search box. The service will initially be rolled out in the US, UK, Spain, Germany, France and Russia.


But is speed everything?


Surely not if it means I see a lot of things I have no interest in before I give the engine enough information to actually find what I’m looking for.


Either way, it has certainly laid down the gauntlet for Microsoft and Bing once again. Furthermore, the Search Engine Optimisers will have to adapt as the rules of the game have changed.

“Auto-Tune” for Fibre Optic Technology

The way that Data currently operates is fraught with problems, relating to capacity and noise imperfections. However, this week an EU-funded team has demonstrated a prototype device that can "clean up" a noisy data signal and re-transmit it with fuller capacity.

Data is sent as a sequence of bits coded into the properties of a light beam piped down an optical fibre, so understandably these bits can become distorted over great lengths of fibre.


Two different kinds of phase noise can be the cause of this making the data unintelligible; the first being imperfections in reproducing exactly when different parts of the light signal arrive. The second because of "cross-talk", signals sent down a fibre that influence one another. Existing electronics can overcome this but the result is a reduced data capacity.


There is also a foreseeable problem due to the growth in bandwidth-hungry applications such as YouTube and iPlayer that will eventually stretch the limits of long-distance fibre links.


The prototype device demonstrated by the team makes use of advances both in optical fibre technology and in lasers, which are used to "lock on" to the signal and distinguish it from noise.


The output signal is returned to its sharp-edged nature at the precise digital levels that are needed; it is, in one sense, like a fibre-optic version of the auto-tune software that "cleans up" singers' voices.


It was stressed that the device was a laboratory demonstration, and some way from industrial application - but that similar technology would become essential in a world where bandwidth needs are always on the rise.

Quote for the Week!

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will."

Vince Lombardi