Category Archives: Internet

Idea To iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad

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Idea To iPhone- The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPadApps are big business and the media is full of stories of app millionaires. The internet has made becoming rich easier than ever, or has it? How easy is it to make an app? Or more importantly, how easy is it to sell it?

17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio hit the headlines by selling his app, Summly, to Yahoo for an estimated £18m, making him a tech superstar. But what about the rest of us who are not teenage whiz kids? I reviewed new book, Idea to iPhone to find out. Read on….

Idea to iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad by Carla White talks you through building an app from idea to iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod Touch. Chapter 1 kicks off with your app adventure. It lists the excuses you may have not to make an app and dismantles them. I immediately liked this book when I was flicking through it for the first time. It is 294 pages of hard to find knowledge that you would not get anywhere else. Well, maybe if you trawled the internet for days, but even then I am not sure.

The graphs and pictures are great. The book is easy to understand anyway, but they add to the information getting into your brain. I learned that making an app is not as hard as you think and nor is it as expensive.

The other great information in this book is on Apple. How to grab their attention and how to work with them. Carla goes through everything you need to know about working with Apple and how iTunes can help or hurt sales. For instance, did you know that Apple take a 30% cut? They also pay you once a month after a four-week delay. There is also a step-by-step guide on becoming an Apple developer. Each chapter ends with a handy table of key points.

Chapter 2 is Shaping Ideas into Apps People Want. An essential chapter as there is no point in making apps that no one wants. This brilliant chapter lets you know how to find your audience. It also tells you how to integrate your app with Facebook and which device will be right for you.

Another thing I liked about the book is the quotes doted throughout. Perfect for inspiration.

Teaching you about finding an audience and building an app is one thing but marketing is also paramount. This book also covers that. You don’t need to hire an expensive PR company (at least not at first) you just need some hard work and imagination. There is also a checklist on building a press kit and information on how people scan iTunes. Essential for marketing your app.

It also has tips on finding a great designer, or designing yourself. And also a lot of information on finding and working with a developer. Tech tips on Xcode are also incredibly useful.

Further tips on making a profit, keeping track of money and getting the press interested make this book essential for anyone who wants to create their own app and become successful.

Idea to IPhone: The Essential Guide to Creating Your First App for the IPhone and IPad

 

Facebook ‘Likes’ More Important Than Birthday Cards

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‘LIKES’ OVERTAKE CARDS AND CAKES AS HOW WE MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF OUR BIRTHDAYS

The impact of social media has totally revolutionised how we celebrate our birthdays according to new research by leading gift card company One4All.

Facebook has become the number one way we wish our friends and loved ones a happy birthday.  76% of us will post a greeting to friends on social media and a quarter of people say that the number of messages they receive is the main way they would measure the success of their birthday.

The research also suggests that many of the traditions that would normally make our day special are being undermined.

60% of people say that they rarely take their birthday as a day off from work and only 15% of people said that they would always have a birthday cake.

The main reason for having a low-key birthday is stress.  A third of people say that they find their own birthdays stressful and would rather celebrate someone else’s.

Declan Byrne, Managing Director UK of One4all, says, “Social media now plays a huge part in all of our lives and it’s interesting to see how it has impacted on the traditional birthday.

“It’s a social shift that is affecting many businesses who provide a service linked to birthday celebrations.  For example, it’s led to us creating online group gifting, where friends can come together through social media to contribute to a joint gift.”

As a result of these findings One4All is also attempting to raise awareness of the need to keep birthday’s special and is launching a social media campaign for people to ‘out’ Birthday Scrooges and encourage them to have a proper, traditional birthday celebration.

“While times do change, it would be nice to think that birthdays will retain their special status,” says Declan. “As a result we want to encourage people to make sure they still take time out to celebrate with friends and family.”

For more information on the social media campaign or if you’d like to nominate a Birthday Scrooge then visit the One4all UK Facebook page.

Get Rich Blogging | Book Review

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get-rich-bloggingI met Zoe Griffin at a fundraising event for cervical cancer which was hosted by Jo’s Trust. Zoe is very vivacious and it is hard not to notice her as she is a social butterfly. I chatted to her on the night and said I would review her book, “Get Rich Blogging”. Zoe was the Sunday Mirror’s showbiz gossip columnist. She bravely left her job to start her blog, Livelikeavip. She did this three years ago and now earns a six-figure income and gets 80,000 hits a month. An impressive achievement. But what about the book? Here is my opinion….

Part one lets you know all about blogs and what Zoe wished she knew when she started hers. The book also has great exercises to get your business brain into gear. You may think you know all about blogging and what a blog is but Zoe leaves no stone unturned.

The section on making money will be popular – obviously, otherwise why would you have bought the book- and it does have a lot of great information on Skimlinks, google adsense, link-based advertising and other ad networks. This information is valuable and took me a lot of research to find when I started Frost. I do have to say that earning money from some of these is not as easy as you think, in the three years I had Skimlinks on my blog I made £32, and only $50 per year from infolinks. It is hardly setting the world on fire, and barely covered the cost of running the site. Zoe’s book has given me lots of ideas for other revenue streams though, and I was lucky enough to become a member of Handpicked Media.

The income section is separated between direct and indirect revenue. The above is direct while the indirect is things such as speaking arrangements, public appearances, collaboration and freelance contracts.

The other great thing about the book is that it helps you find the marketplace, and therefore the readers, of your blog. It is full of exercises, tips and quotes. The end of each chapter also has a checklist. The book then talks you through design, preparing for business, getting images and building your brand.

It also has a great chapter on social media: very important in these times. Building a loyal readership and boosting your income are also covered.

Part II is a great chapter of interviews with other bloggers, sectioned into their niche area. Along with tips of each niche area.

This book is an essential resource for those who are not only starting a blog, but also those who already have one. A great book. Five stars.

You can buy Get Rich Blogging here

I will be interviewing Zoe soon so check back for that,

 

How To Build A Website

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buildawebsiteBuilding a website can seem like a daunting experience. Especially to the technologically challenged. But like most things, when you get the hang of it, it becomes a lot easier.

To get you on your way Frost has put together a handy guide. Good luck!

Get Some Hosting

If you are going to build a website you need to have it hosted on a server. When deciding what hosting site to go with ask around. Word of mouth is important. 1&1 My Website have a good reputation. They also have good customer service. My first ever website was hosted by them. Aw, memories.

Get a Domain

Different from hosting. The domain is the name of the site. So Frostmagazine.com is our domain. A good domain name enhances your brand and makes your URL (uniform resource locator) easier to find. These can be inexpensive. Although it you want katemiddleton.com not only would that probably be taken, but it would also be very expensive.

Think About The Design

You want a design that is pleasing to the eye and easy to read. Also think carefully about installing flash or lots of plugins. This will slow the site down and some people might not even be able to view it.

Content is King

This is the most important thing on your site. Nothing is more important than content. It will get people coming back to your site. You need to update your content regularly. Not only for your readers (if an online magazine) or customers (if for your business) but also for the search engines. If you constantly update your site then search engines like google love it as it shows growth.

Think About Getting a Template

You don’t need to learn how to code. You can use a wordpress template. We use one on Frost Magazine and so do a lot of other sites.

Ask For Help

Never be scared to ask for help. If you are stuck you can ask your hosting site’s customer service, search on the internet or ask the question on Twitter and Facebook. People love to help.

Back Up!

This is so important: Back up your site! If you don’t back up then you can lose all of your hard work in an instant. So many things can go wrong so back up at least once a week.

 Do you have any website building tips? Share them below.

 

The Most Common Social Media Mishaps of People On-the-Go

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Social Media is all the rage these days. Can you imagine going through an entire day and not posting your activities? Probably not. But should you post everything you do every day? One of the biggest risks you can make is posting too much information. Be careful of the possible dangers you may create if you post compromising information.

Letting the World Know “No One’s Home”

Social Media Mistake

Don’t Let the World Know You’re Not Home

Image via Flickr by waferboard

Perhaps one of the most dangerous faux pas you can commit while out of town is alerting thieves that your home will be unoccupied for the foreseeable future. Burglars scour social media sites, hoping for a great post like this, alerting them to the fact that your home will be empty, and ripe for the picking.

Telling the World Where They Can Find You at All Times

Social Media Mistake

Don’t Tell the World Where You Are

 

Image via Flickr by FlyingSinger

One of the most-used apps on social media sites is a geographical locator. These apps quickly let you tell others exactly where you are at the time of your post. Although this feature may seem like a neat way to say, “Look where I am!” it’s also a way to let potential danger find you. There are people out there who use social media networks to stalk their prey. If you use a geographical locator, you’re telling your potential stalker exactly when and where to find you.

Alerting Your Boss That You’re Not at Work

Social Media Mistake

Don’t Let Your Boss Know Through Social Media

Image via Flickr by ilamont.com

Remember, when you post anything to your social media network, anyone can see it, including your boss. The last thing you want to have happen is for your boss to discover that you’re out of town when you’re supposed to be working.

Sharing Events That Should Remain Private

Social Media Mistake

Don’t Share Private Stuff That You Don’t Want Others to Know

Image via Flickr by Daniel Morris

Have you ever been embarrassed about something you said the morning after a binder? Imagine having it plastered all over the Internet. If you post your status to your social media sites while you’re drunk and don’t realize what you’re doing,  you risk having information you wanted to keep private leaking all over the web. More importantly, you risk future potential employers seeing what you want to keep private from them.

Posting The Location of Other People

Social Media Mistake

Don’t Let Everyone Know the Location of Your Friends

Image via Flickr by AMagill

Even if you still feel comfortable posting your “away” status, other members or your group may not be. Remember, if you’re mentioning you’re away with a group of people, your companions are now in the spotlight too. Do not mention anything about the rest of your group being out of town if they’re not comfortable with it. Even if you don’t mention them by name, anyone who knows other members of your group will be able to figure out that they’re away too.

So the next time you’re out of town with your new ultrabook laptop, think twice before posting an update or Tweet. You Know what they say about “assume,” right? Well, never assume that you are safe when using social networking. You may think, “What’s the harm?” when posting what you’re doing while out of town, but there are too many potential dangers out there, and you need to protect yourself from them.

This article is written by Shaun Chatman, a prolific freelance writer who has been featured on many authority sites. In his spare time, Shaun loves playing with his two kids or his collection of gadgets.

 

All of Your Digital Life in One Secure Place: LifeKeep Review

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This post brought to you by BuzzParadise. All opinions are 100% mine.

LifeKeepAs our life's are becoming more and more virtual it seems like there will be no aspect of ourselves that technology does not touch. While we may not have flying cars or hoover boards, technology has evolved so much and added so much to our lives.

As our digital lives become more important to us, so does the technology to keep it all in check, but users do not yet trust the cloud. Their digital lives are scattered all over the internet and they are worries about security, people stealing their data and advertisers tracking them. There seems to be no such thing as privacy anymore. And that is where Lifekeep comes in. As Lifekeep says, "LifeKeep is a digital vault, a personal and secure Cloud account, a comprehensive and respectful solution that capitalizes on 4G and the latest encryption technologies to bring you what you always longed for"

So Frost Magazine decided to try out a free LifeKeep account. LifeKeep

First of all we signed up for a free Lifekeep account and also downloaded the free LifeKeep app.

So what exactly does Lifekeep do? It stores, manages and retrieves multi-media files. From Lifekeep you can post pictures to Facebook and share things with your friends. It also backs up your entire digital life. It also does file conversions to new format in the future. LifeKeep

One of my favourite things about Lifekeep is being able to access all of my data and files without any of the information having to be on my iPad or iPhone. This way, if anything gets stolen my personal data is secure. I can manage and retrieve everything through Lifekeep onto my iPad, from documents to pictures.

LifeKeep

As well as retrieving things yourself you can also securely share files. Lifekeep has a secure network through which you can even chat and blog with friends. It is better than dropbox and safer than Facebook.

Lifekeep also lets you handle your digital life after you have passed away. It allows you to safely pass on the keys to your digital life.

The security of Lifekeep is impressive. Lifekeep has, "The AES-256 encryption technology, which the U.S. Committee on National Security Systems called worthy of securing “top secret” classified documents, is widely considered to be the Highest mathematical security encryption standard today. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. Someone trying to hack into your account would have to use as many computations as there are hydrogen atoms in the observable universe."

All in all we are very impressed with Lifekeep. We give it full marks and will definitely be using it in the future.

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Handpicked Media release charity #HPMemory2012 book

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Handpicked Media in collaboration with Blurb, the creative publishing
platform, has created a book showcasing memories of 2012. Curated via the eyes of Handpicked
Media’s blogs and websites it’s about capturing the mood of the nation in 2012 and all the incredible
but personal times that were had.

Frost Magazine has our own entry in the book and we have already ordered our copy.

Entitled ‘This is my #HPMemory2012, what’s yours?’ it is a snapshot of what they experienced from
new babies, and exploring new cities to iconic London events with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and
London 2012 Olympics.

An ebook version can be bought for under £5 from http://store.blurb.co.uk/ebooks/361990-this-
is-my-hpmemory2012-what-s-yours, with a printed copy available for £25 via www.blurb.co.uk/
bookstore/detail/3872418. 100% of all proceeds from the book will go direct to When You Wish
Upon A Star, a charity that grants wishes for children living with life-threatening illnesses.

Callum Watt, Marketing Director of Handpicked Media says, “With the release of this book we hope
to capture a snapshot of 2012 and share people’s memories. It doesn’t stop there though; we
want to get people talking about their own memories on social media channels using the hashtag
#HPMemory2012.”

Teresa Pereira from Blurb says, “It’s been an unbelievably exciting and eventful year for the UK and
this book celebrates everything from the personal right through to the epic. What better way to
capture the highlights of the past year than with a beautifully designed book that can be shared with
friends and families and cherished as a lasting memento of 2012 for years to come.”