Oct 11
Jigar PanchalLinks, Mac OS X, iphone / Mobile
Apple first started advertising its products in the late 1970s.
The 80s showed a wide variety of ads, some of which served to convince consumers that they should purchase a computer, and specifically an Apple.
These ads were text-heavy and light on images, as were many computer and technology ads from that era.
Apple ads really came into their heyday during the 1990s, with the “Think Different” campaign, which became very popular as they featured a number of famous people.
Here’s a stunning compilation of some of Apple’s most notable advertisements from the 70s until the present day, including a few videos ads.
With the launch of the iMac in the late 90s, Apple ads became much more artistic and, for the most part, focused much more on showcasing the product and used very little text compared with earlier ads.
It’s also worth noting how the ads changed as the hardware changed. For more on the evolution of Apple’s hardware, see The Evolution of Apple Design between 1977-2008 which takes a look at the changes from a hardware perspective.
Most recently, Apple has focused on television advertising, most notably with its Mac vs. PC ads. The company had done TV ads prior to that (starting with the ad based on George Orwell’s “1984″ during the 1984 Super Bowl), but mostly in conjunction with print campaigns.
Current Apple ads seem to follow two veins: advertisements for their computers generally have a white background and put the emphasis on the product being advertised; ads for the iPod line generally have bright backgrounds with silhouetted figures. Most of Apple’s current advertising seems to be on TV these days. You can watch most of the recent ads on the Apple website.
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Sep 12
Jigar PanchalLinks, Work
Management is a vast subject, with several sub-categories, such as product, team management and project management. While all are interesting topics, this article focuses mainly on team management and offers some useful tips and ideas to promote discussion and help improve the performance and happiness of your teams.
There seems to be in creative sectors a fear of management and a great divide between creative and “business” people. This is often because the people doing the managing are not business-minded or business school graduates but are rather designers or developers. Managers in creative industries tend to be staff who have moved up within the company; for example, a junior designer who reaches mid-level, then senior, and eventually ends up running their own team; or a developer who works for himself but gets a series of major contracts, and before they know it they are the Managing Director of a small company. This type of team has many benefits but also some downsides.
Some of these ideas are not new or indeed particularly innovative, but they are often overlooked or even ignored. Below is a selection of key items for discussion within your team. The snippets cover a variety of topics to help managers in creative industries who may not have a managerial background. You may agree with some suggestions and not others, but the aim is to gain a basic understanding of key issues so that you can look at how to improve your team. After all, if you spend all your time producing great work and no time creating a great team, the first will be harder to achieve. More
Nov 13
Jigar PanchalLinks, iphone / Mobile Mobile Tools
While working remotely can be a great experience, lugging around your laptop can put quite a damper on your fun. Why not just take your cell phone instead? Here are 45 resources that will let you do your work wherever you are, as long as there’s a cell phone signal. No Laptop or Broadband required!
Money/Finance: Cash is King – monitor finances anywhere you get a signal.
1. Quickbooks Mobile – The GrandDaddy of accounting now has a mobile interface that shows you cash in, cash out and the general state of your books.
2. Freshbooks - Online invoicing service that lets you send bills to customers. Offers an iPhone interface so you can keep the money rolling in.
3. PayPal Mobile – send, receive and check your PayPal balance from anywhere.
4. Mobile Banking – most major banks now let you do all your banking from your cell phone, so you can check balances, pay bills and accept payments.
5. Xpenser – track expenses in real time via SMS or mobile browsing
6. myHours – track your time and billing with myHours.
7. TSheets – update timesheets via text, iPhone App and mobile browsing.
8. Pocket PC Invoice – Invoicing software designed specifically for the Pocket PC.
9. Tip Calculator – Easily calculate total tip amount and how much everyone must contribute.
Remote Access and File Storage: Log in to your computer from anywhere, and get easy access to files whenever you need them
10. GoToMyPC - Use your computer from anywhere. Just log in from a cell phone and it will automatically connect you to your computer in the office.
11. iPhone VPN – Connect your iPhone to your company Virtual Private Network with these handy instructions from Apple.
12. OpenVPN for PocketPC – Use OpenVPN to connect to any VPN that supports the Open VPN Standard.
13. Files Anywhere – Use Files Anywhere to share, backup and keep files you need when you’re on the go.
14. MobileMe – online storage and syncing from Apple for iPhone, PC and Mac.
15. iZoho – Access your Zoho material from the iPhone. Only allows read access for now.
Communication and Contact Management: Stay in touch with employees and customers while on the go.
16. Salesforce - access the SalesForce interface from a Blackberry, Windows PC, and Palm.
17. SugarCRM -access your customer information with the Open Source Sugar CRM mobile module.
18. Highrise – online customer management tool from the folks at 37 Signals.
19. Free ConferenceCall.com – Set up a free conference call from anywhere and dial in with your cell phone.
20. Gmail – the Gmail we all know and love is probably the most mobile compatible email service out there. You can use it from a web service or use the IMAP feature to sync natively to your phone.
21. Loopt – share your status and even create a mobile network just for your company.
22. eFax – get your faxes sent to your email, and send from your cell phone as well.
23. Twitter – send short messages without having to use up your SMS allowance.
24. MyFax.com – similar to efax, except you can send and receive faxes directly from the web.
25. Meebo – Connect to most Instant Messaging services via the web.
26. Campfire – Group messaging service that is mobile and iPhone compatible.
27. BeeJive – native application for instant messaging on iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
28. Fring – integrates instant messaging, Skype and actual telephones to provide an all-in-one-communications tool.
29. Skype – make cheaper or free calls when you’re in WiFi zone with Skype.
Project Management: Manage ongoing projects from wherever you may be.
30. Base Camp – manage teams and projects collaboratively via web based interface.
31. Wrike – project management tool that works well via email
32. Tempo – A cross between project management and time tracking, keeps track via SMS, Mobile Web, and even twitter.
Documents, Spreadsheets and Media: Access and create new document for clients and co-workers.
33. Google Docs – Viewing only of any documents you have in your Google Docs account
34. Adobe PDF Reader – custom PDF viewer for Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Pocket PC.
35. Foxit PDF Mobile – our favorite PDF tool, now in a convenient smart phone package.
36. Mobile Zoho – You can both access and create new spreadsheets, documents and presentations with Zoho.
37. Flickr – keep track of important pictures and access them anywhere with Flickr for mobile.
38. Photoshop Mobile – do basic image editing on the go with Photoshop mobile. Works with Windows Mobile only.
39. Shozu – use Shozu to upload, browse and edit pictures.
Travel : Manage itineraries, book flights and find where you need to go.
40. TripIt – organizes your itinerary as you email it confirmation and changes.
41. Flight Stats – find out if your plane is delayed or cancelled.
42. Orbitz – book tickets and hotels from most major airlines and chains.
43. Google Maps – get directions and find attractions.
44. Traffic.com – keep an eye on traffic and snarl ups as you go.
45. Taxis – call 1800-TAXI-CAB or 1-800-TAXI-USA and they will connect you with a local taxi service.
Oct 05
Jigar PanchalDesign, Links, Web Dev, Work CSS Layouts
As a web-developer you don’t have to re-invent the wheel all the time. If it just has to work, and has to be valid, and has to have a nice, visually appealing design hierarchy, you just can use css-techniques developed in the web-dev-community over the last few years. If you take a look around, you’ll find many templates, which include basic (X)HTML/CSS-markup.
You can start from there, learning and exploring the possibilities of CSS and modifying templates for your exquisite taste. Below you’ll find a list of resources which offer free, gorgeous and valid CSS-based templates – usually with images and full layout structure, such as headers, navigation bars, content containers, sidebars and footers.
Usually developers require a link to the site where the template was downloaded from. So before using these templates it might be useful to take a look at the license agreement the developer provides. Links checked: June/19 2008.
(X)HTML- and CSS-Templates
Oct 05
Jigar PanchalLinks, Web Dev Online Converters
Online converters always come in handy. Once you need to perform some operation with your files, they can save your time achieving the same results online, without installing some specific software. In fact, there are many online tools, which convert formats, files and code snippets for free. Some of them are quite specific tools aimed for developers, but some are common “all-rounders”, which manage to convert almost every format to a more popular one. Using them, you can generate .pdf-documents out of images, images out of texts or RSS-feeds out of web-sites. You can also convert any audio- and video-files immediately – the results can be received via e-mail.
So what can you use? What should you use?
This overview of online-converters for users and developers might give you some useful starting points and improve your productivity. More
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