Category Archives: Technology

How to turn your old, busted gadgets into the technology of the future

With the rapid progression of technology each year, it’s easy to accumulate a pile of obsolete gadgets that you just can’t bear to get rid of. So don’t! Here are our top 10 ways you can take the retired gadgets you’ve already got and turn them into something that has a solid place in the future. #9 Create a wireless Internet radio from an old router Radios and routers aren’t exactly technology of the future—more of the past and present, really—but when you combine them with the internet you’ve suddenly got a pretty awesome device for streaming music. The process isn’t even that complicated. All you really need is a particular wireless router (the Asus WL-520GU is recommended in this case) and a USB sound card. Pretty neat. View the top … Continue reading →

Why mobile sites are important

Google is announcing today that websites that are optimized for mobile will now factor into ad quality. The company says that last year it began to limit ad serving on smartphone devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content, in order to improve the experience for users. Now the search giant will be considering the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of mobile ads quality for all AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords and drive more traffic. The core guidelines for landing page quality apply across devices (on desktop and on mobile) but this consideration will only affect AdWords on mobile devices. For background, … Continue reading →

Five videos of five actions clients can take with Google Analytics

There is a lot to communicate in modern marketing and our methods haven’t kept up with the times. I often find myself giving trying to solve problems by phone and email; methods which turn out to be unnecessarily time consuming and open to miscommunication I want to show a different way to communicate analytics actions to a client. I use a tool called Screenr. It is a simple desktop video capture service, like a Flip camera for your desktop. Using Screenr I find I can very quickly communicate and educate around specific topics. It is perfect for clearly showing clients how to take control of analytics. Read more By Stephen Croome for EConsultancy, 01 Sept 2011.  

Top 10 google earth finds

Columbus and Magellan had it rough. Exploration these days is quite literally an armchair activity, as high-resolution satellite images and tools like Google Earth make it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to pore over the globe with a fine-toothed comb. There are entire online communities devoted to finding and cataloging the most unusual locales worldwide, creating 21st century atlases of minutiae. It isn’t just for hobbyists, either — Google Earth has helped scientists find previously unknown ruins and police locate clandestine marijuana fields. Here are 10 of the most unusual discoveries. Visit site By Dan Fletcher for Time Specials.

Learn to be a coder!

Codecademy is the easiest way to learn how to code. It’s interactive, fun, and you can do it with your friends. Visit site

When to pull the plug on old software

The evolution of digital technology can be ruthless in its speed. Not only does it give birth at a frightening rate; it has a nasty habit of killing its elderly relatives. Take the latest release of Apple’s OS X operating system – Lion. This £21 Mac makeover adds more than 250 new features including an iPad-style app interface, wireless file sharing and a hugely expanded lexicon of finger-gnarling multi-touch gestures. But it removes Rosetta, the handy little code translation engine that enabled newer Intel-powered computers to run programs written for Apple’s older machines, which were built around Motorola/IBM PowerPC chips. Read more By By Iain Mackenzie for BBC News: Business, 12 August 2011.  

How to put your logo in a QR code

After writing this post on somone hacking QR codes, Hack A Day commenters came out in full force posting some really cool links about modifying QR codes to include a logo. I’ll fully admit I geeked out a little, but in the process I figured out some of the theory behind embedding logos in QR codes. After getting my hands on the ISO 18004 specification for QR codes, I decided to try embedding the Hack A Day skull & wrenches inside a QR code. The tools I used were Photoshop, this QR code generator, and Microsoft Paint (I’ve never seen a program to edit individual pixels that has a better UI, so don’t laugh). Read more By Brian Benchoff for Hack A Day, 16 August 2011.  

Build your own gadget with microsoft's lego for adults

Microsoft has released a new rapid prototyping toolkit that promises to let electronic enthusiasts put together small gadgets in a matter of hours. Devices built with the kit, dubbed.NET Gadgeteer, include an MP3 player, digital camera, and a mini arcade cabinet. At the heart of the kit is a main circuit board with an embedded processor and a variety of sockets that can be linked with other .NET Gadgeteer modules. These include a touchscreen, a camera, LEDs, buttons, and USB and SD card interfaces, all of which can be slotted together like electronic Lego without the need for soldering. On the software side, Microsoft has set up a website to share the open-source code that controls the various .NET Gadgeteer modules. Users can also write their own software in C#, a … Continue reading →