Facebook's New Products

Although three products were announced, I feel the first two products were more revisions than new products. Group chat and a new sidebar... I don't know about you but a sidebar is the last thing that gets me excited. So let's focus on the last product. Video Chat, that was the bombshell everyone was looking for. The bigger bombshell, Skype. The new video chat is powered by Skype. This in my opinion is a game changer. One click to connect and a plugin download in under 30 seconds. I would say the can not get much simpler than that. The product is already rolling out today. I'd imagine most users will see these products start shown up in the next week or two.

HTC EVO 3D

I finally replaced my quickly aging HTC Hero. I have to say I'm not surprised by the excellent build quality of this phone. It has a very solid feel to it. Now the 3D is a little gimicky but that's not why I bought the phone. The speed is what sold me. There is no lag. None. Period. The Google Voice integration is pretty good. And the picture quality is also excellent. People deemed the originally EVO an iPhone killer. The EVO 3D kills the original EVO. With that being said, I believe that Apple is now required to release the iPhone 5 this year. I have yet to find anything I don't like about this phone. I even feel that it gets better reception, but it may just be a placebo effect. The stock keyboard isn't bad, but I am a fan of the swype keyboard. I strongly suggest this phone.

Overall - 9/10

-Matt

Domains

The amount of domain name squating is ridiculous. I am searching for the perfect domain name for a clients, went to godaddy... It's already registered. So I punch in the address and of all places where does it take me? It redirects to a yahoo page saying geocities is no longer available. I figured yahoo would have taken their page, explaining that they got rid of geocities, down a few years ago. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a geocities site. But back to the main point of this story. So, after a who is search now I need to call the owner of a domain that looks like hasn't been updated in a decade. I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping the owner is reasonable and doesn't want a first born for the domain. I understand these people pay for the domain, but that shouldn't mean they can sit on it for years never using it constructively. But it's all part of the job.

-Matt

Blogger+

Blogger+ may be the greatest app I've ever used on iOS. The app has some great features including labeling posts, inserting photos or maps, sharing to Facebook or Twitter, and multiple blog support. I don't think anyone who has a blog should be without this little piece of software. Updating a blog is similar to painting. You have to be inspired otherwise who would want to look at it? We'll now you can blog from anywhere that you have your iPhone or iPad. No more forgetting the topic by time you make it to the computer.

-Matt

Overall - 7/10

Why "New Age" Marketing doesn't always have a good ROI...

The one common denominator between all businesses that I know have tried a newer marketing approach and failed, is lack of diversity. What I mean is that most small businesses are hesitant to try the newer marketing techniques because they would rather pay for a yellow pages ad like they did for 25+ years before. Why would they rather pay for the yellow pages ad? Because that's what they have always done. Most of the time there is no other reason. Small businesses do not like change. This resistance toward change is what is ultimately hurting their ROI of the newer media. Why? Well most of them don't want to invest very much into something new. They may have some Adwords ads or hire a social media management team for only one account. Maybe they run Facebook ads instead, but never have I seen one company locally embrace all of these. Just one of the avenues I mentioned may have some effect on its own, but to achieve truly great results they must embrace many if not all of the available new media. Social media has the power to create empires. We have already seen this. But small businesses don't want to believe it. I have heard that in the 80s and even the 90s you weren't "in" business unless you had a business card. Then in the 2000s, you weren't "in" business unless you had a website. Now, you are not "in" business unless you have a social media presence across multiple platforms.

-Matt

iWeb

So those of you who have been following us for awhile might notice the site looks a little different. Over the next few days, I will be migrating the site to iWeb. This program is just plain easy. I haven’t had time to sit down and do any design or html work on the old site, and now I don’t have too. I would love some feed back on the new site. But now to a little more of a review. iWeb literaly would allow for a monkey to create a half decent site. It is completely visually based for the most part. It is possible to add html but there is very little need. It may not be the most impressive site but it looks better than GoDaddy’s Website Tonight. I do use GoDaddy products but iWeb may replace atleast Website Tonight.

Overall - 8/10

-Matt

Long time, no post

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog. I've been experimenting with different option for my blog, but I'm happy to say I think I've come back to blogger for good. I will be transferring some posts from the other blogs I tried to this blog. As one of my recent clients would say, I've added a few arrows to my quiver. HES, Hopkins Electronic Services, now offered everything from mobile app development to SMS marketing and eve social media management. We are now your "New Media" Management solution.

-Matt