Last week I wrote about the upcoming Website Creation Workshop here:
http://bobrandklev.com/news/spring-website-design-and-development-classes-starting-soon/
If you’ve ever wanted to learn website design and development, these are great instructor led classes and registration ends today!
Go here to see the overview videos and get more class information: http://BobRandklev.com/WebsiteWorkshop
I took this class in 2008 and it’s been priceless!
The spring Website Creation Workshop will be starting March 21, 2011 and registration is open through March 16th here: http://BobRandklev.com/WebsiteWorkshop
Twice a year my colleague, Christina Hills, teaches non-techie people how to build their websites without a webmaster. NORMALLY she offers a spring and fall class but in 2011 there will NOT be a fall class.
The class teaches you how to design and develop website on the WordPress.org development platform. It was recently reported that somewhere between 8-11% of the ENTIRE Internet runs on the WordPress platform!
We’ve hired many of Christina’s students for our web design projects at CyberInnovation.com and we are always looking for good people!
It’s also been reported that 40% of businesses still don’t have a website or their website hasn’t been updated in many years. In a down economy the market for web designers is growing!
My wife and I work primarily from home but when we travel we can work anywhere our laptops take us! Of course WiFi Internet access is important but you can get access almost anywhere these days! Our new Android phones double as WiFi hotspots so we can literally work on website, out on a boat!
To learn more visit http://BobRandklev.com/WebsiteWorkshop and review the videos and let me know if you have any questions!
The spring class registration is open now through March 16th with classes starting March 21, 2011.
Christina has taught hundreds of people worldwide how to easily build websites by themselves. You can build virtually any kind of website you want.
This is an instructor led class, with 8 modules over 10 weeks. Each class has an assignment, lecture and demo/training website. You can collaborate with other students as well as alumni members. It’s a very easy to learn and each module has a handout to follow as it’s designed for non-techie people, with explanations in plain English!
You can literally learn how to build a website in as little as 10 weeks but don’t wait as there is only one class in 2011.
Registration is open until March 16 and classes start March 21st!
Learn more at: http://BobRandklev.com/WebsiteWorkshop
Create a website for a business, church, realtor, non-profit
Start your own design business
Work from home – part time income
Learn about blogging, website creation, social networking, SEO, audio podcasting, video, photo galleries and more
If you have any comments or questions just post them below. If you don’t make the class in time or have other questions just let us know!
If you are a note taker this free service is for you!
Evernote is an online note taking, storing and searching service that is simply amazing!
There are so many options available I’ll try to overview each of them below. I’ve been using Evernote for a couple of years now and I’m amazed at how much better my notes are organized!
First you visit Evernote.com and register for a free account, no credit card or payment required.
Next download the desktop application for Mac, PC or Linux and setup the login/password.
You are now ready to create a note in a “word processor type” window which allows bold, italic, underline and more. You can create numbered and un-numbered lists. If you have an iPad or tablet you can use a pen to write notes directly into Evernote.
Each note can be tagged with keyword tags and you can create unlimited notebooks. It’s like the old days of buying a spiral notebook for each topic in your life and only putting notes in that notebook for that topic.
So far you may not be too excited but you notes are created locally, stored online and you can access them from a web browser or any other computer or mobile phone or mobile device! Search across all notebooks by keyword to find any note!
In no particular order, here are the really amazing options!
Drag PDF and Word documents into Evernote. Move/archive your old files from your computer to Evernote online storage.
Email notes into Evernote. Each account is given a super secret email address where you simply forward your emails and they are stored in Evernote. You can then edit and move the notes around to other notebooks.
At our office we have a large multi-purpose scanner which sends to an email. I’ve setup my Evernote email so I can high-speed scan files into Evernote.
Share notes with other users. You can share notes with family, friends or business associates.
OCR PDF documents! Object Character Recognition reads each of your PDF scanned files and creates a text version to make it easy for searching and more! I’m amazed how a scanned file sent to Evernote by email is found later when I search for a keyword and it’s a hand written word!
Evernote for Android, Blackberry or iPhone! Now you can type a note, take a picture or record a voice message in your phone and have it saved to Evernote!
There are numerous companies creating software/hardware solutions to work directly with Evernote. You can get scanners to work directly with Evernote and many other ideas! View them all right here: http://www.evernote.com/about/trunk/
Site memory is a service you can add to your website to allow visitors to clip or store you website information into their Evernote account! This site and this post has site memory setup for saving this article or any others in our website!
If you prefer to see a video overview click here: http://www.evernote.com/about/video/#OlOLXWvaIy0|1|1
Here’s some other ideas directly from the Evernote site:
Put your thoughts, ideas, inspiration, and things to remember all in one place. Use Evernote for work, for play, and for everything that’s noteworthy. Here are a few suggestions:
Evernote Premium is for those power users who need to upload over 1GB per month or searchable PDF’s or offline notebooks on the ipad. Here are more details:
| Free | Premium | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to all versions of Evernote |  |
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| Synchronization across platforms | |
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| Text recognition inside images | |
|
| Note allowance | Unlimited, upload 60MB/mo | Unlimited, upload 1GB/mo |
| File synchronization | Limited: images, audio, ink, PDF | Any file type |
| Search within PDFs | |
|
| Access to note history | |
|
| Offline notebooks (iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android) | |
|
| Notebook sharing via Evernote Web | Read only | Allow read and edit |
| Max single note size | 25MB | 50MB |
| Support | Standard | Premium support |
| Security features | SSL encryption | SSL encryption |
| Priority image recognition | |
|
| Hide promotions | |
|
| Cost | Free | $5/month or $45/year |
There are also options for an organization or company to create/manage accounts for their people. You can add and remove accounts as needed and $5 a month per use is a deal!
http://www.evernote.com/about/sponsor/
Do you Evernote? How do you use it?
I hope this technology solution never goes away but I’ve been using Google Voice to make FREE outbound phone calls on my Android smart phone!
My mobile plan has free incoming minutes so technically I don’t use any minutes on my mobile phone plan minutes.
My outbound voice calls are using my data plan which is based on data throughput not minutes!
Google has a great overview and instructions here: http://www.google.com/mobile/voice/
Supported phone operating systems are: Android, Blackberry and iPhone. I have only tested and used Android.
Basically what you do is get a free Google Voice account with a phone number in your local area code.
Next you install the Google Voice App on your phone and in your application settings tell your phone to use Google Voice for all your outgoing phone calls.
Next contact your mobile phone provider and change your plan to “free incoming minutes.”
Now your incoming calls are free and your outgoing calls are free!
Let me explain the process in more detail below (you can use any part of this solution or follow along each step):
That’s all you can now call anyone and your Android phone will use your data plan (not your minutes) to make your phone call.
NOTE: Be sure to understand your new Google Voice number will be what your callers see as the incoming phone number on their phone. People will answer and say “did you get a new number” and just tell them yes to update their address book. Over time you can transition everyone over to your new Google Voice number vs your mobile phone number.
International calls are NOT free. Rates are very reasonable and comparable to Skype.
To take incoming calls from Google Voice you have to set up your smart phone in the Google Voice settings.
You’ll also want to record your voice mail greeting in Google Voice. I route ALL my calls through Google Voice and use the voicemail features. All my voicemails come to me via email and I have an online call history I can review at anytime!
WiFi problems: A side note I have my phone setup to use WiFi when available. So when I’m at home my phone use’s my Wi-Fi network. So when I make a phone call it’s going out over the Wi-Fi. I’ve had a problem walking out the door getting into my car and losing a call as I drive away and the Wi-Fi goes away. I’m sure over time the software will be updated and it doesn’t happen that often but good to keep in mind!
If you think beyond making free calls with your phone, Google Voice is sooo much more.
I already mentioned your entire call history is stored online so you a search at anytime.
Voicemails are archived and you can forward a voicemail via email
Voicemails are transcribed to text! This is amazing when someone leaves a message and you can read what the voicemail. It’s not perfect but you can understand who called and what they called about.
Free texting! Free phone calls in the US
Let me know if you are using Google Voice now or how it goes after you get this installed and configured. I’ve been using this for a couple of months now and my minutes are way down!
Six weeks ago I made the change from a Blackberry phone to Android. I was excited to try the new technology but have to admit the first week I had “Blackberry withdrawal” while I was overwhelmed with the Android. I was a Blackberry user for almost 10 years!
Now many weeks later I can say it’s one of the best technology upgrades I’ve every made!
I’ve been holding out and waiting for a couple of years for an iPhone but I live in an area where AT&T service is not the best. So two years ago Blackberry was the only “Smart Phone” choice and I remember writing about how amazing the Gmail integration worked with the Blackberry, the Facebook and Twitter apps were great and I was able to sync all my Google contacts and calendar with my Blackberry.
So in summary my Blackberry was my phone, texting device, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts and Facebook. There was also weather and a few other apps but Internet access and apps was ok…. limited and frustrating at times.
My first few days with the Android was filled with downloading different apps and realizing there is a memory limit with the hardware. My current version of Android stores all the apps and cache data on the phone rather than the add-on memory card. The phone came with an 8GB memory card to hold music, photos, video etc.. but it doesn’t hold the apps! I’m told by my provider that the Android update will be coming soon and then apps/cache/data can be stored on the external memory card.
Battery life was terrible at first and really frustrated me. After so many years of charging once a day and having nothing to worry about, now I found myself charging my phone in the middle of the day. I took the phone back to confirm there weren’t problems and they explained and I agree I now use the phone more like a computer. I was spending more time using the Android phone for checking email, Facebook and many new online applications. This explained why the battery was run down so quickly every day.
Once I got over the newness off the phone AND I found a great app called JuiceDefender, I was able to keep the battery charge almost all day. One of the problems with many Android apps is they check for updates every minute! So the phone is basically running in the background checking email, GPS, social networks, weather and many more every minute! Juice Defender allows you to change this so I now have my phone checking for updates every 30 minutes as I’m using my computer most of every day I get most of my updates there.
I’ve also replaced my iTouch with my new Android. I was able to either find a similar app or the Android version of the same apps I use on the iTouch. I was also happy to see the Android phone has WiFi so when I’m in a hot spot my phone uses the WiFi network and not my data plan.
I haven’t mentioned yet but I choose the HTC Desire for my phone. It’s a nice sleek phone with a great screen but the point of this article isn’t the phone, it’s the fact it’s an “Android” operating system on the phones. Google has done a great job offering a smart phone operating system that is used by ALL the major phone manufacturers. Off the top of my head you can get Android on HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others.
Because of the “open platform” of Android, it’s become the fastest growing smart phone “OS” and is now outselling the iPhone. Apple makes a great product and they continue to be the leader in the smart phone market BUT you can only get iPhone operating system on an iPhone and currently only at AT&T. 2011 is the year you’ll be able to get the iPhone on the Verizon network but will it be very popular or has the market swung over to the Andorid phones?
Have you made the change from Blackberry to Android? Do you think the iPhone being offered on more phone networks will help them maintain the lead or is it too late?
If you have a comment, leave it below!
Last October I saw this article in Mashable http://mashable.com/2010/10/25/wi-fi-direct-launch/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable) and was simply amazed!
Most people are familiar with Wi-Fi connections at home, work, coffee shops or the mall. There’s an “access point” you connect your device to so you can access the Internet but not connect device to device.
With Wi-Fi Direct you can now connect to devices together to exchange information, music, videos and more! Connect your laptop to your PC or iTouch to move files around.
This video can explain better:
Wi-Fi Direct from Blake Robinson on Vimeo.
So think of this as similar to Bluetooth wireless but much faster and more than headsets etc..
Are you looking for an iPad or iPod or accessories? Don’t have an Apple store nearby? Wal-Mart has a great selection online and with Site to Store shipping you don’t have to wait in line or fight the crowds. Just order and pick up at a nearby store.
Free Site to Store Shipping on all Apple products at Walmart.com!
We all know Wal-Mart for the thousands of stores they have around the country. Not as many people are aware of their web to store technologies.
Many retails organizations are now offering “site to store” delivery with free to very inexpensive shipping.
Wal-Mart now offers their print ads in an online version. You can flip through the ad and click an item to learn more, then purchase and have the item delivered to your home OR to your local Wal-Mart store for pick up.
To see an example simply click the banner below, enter your zip code and you’ll be presented a local flyer and you can go through it page by page and click on any item you like.
How cool, shop online, avoid the crowds and pick up at the local store.
This is a great combination of technology and local shopping.
One of the best times of the year for technology fans searching for deals is from now till the end of the year!
Competition is high, prices are slashed and there are specials all around the Internet.
Below are a few links for the Xbox fans and the new Kinect add on for Xbox
Black Friday early bird Special! Get a Kinect and a Game for $199 from the Microsoft Store! Offer ends 12.31.10
Take 25% off the Xbox Premium Bundle from the Microsoft Store! Offer ends 12.31.10
If you already have an Xbox you can add the Kinect or get an Xbox and Kinect together. Kinect allows you to be a player in the games!
Ever wanted to share files with a group of friends, family or clients? Tired of sending files by email?
Wouldn’t it be cool if it was free?
Do you need to access the files with a PC or Mac?
Maybe you want access via your mobile phone or iTouch/iPad
Dropbox is an amazing online file storage service I’ve been using for over a year. You can store up to 2GB of files for free, access from any device and share with others!
You simply sign up for your free account with your name and email address at http://CyberInnovation.com/Dropbox
After you confirm your account by email you install a simple application for your computer (PC or Mac) and a folder is added to your desktop or in your My Documents folder. If you don’t want to install any application you can access your files via your web browser online.
The DropBox folder acts like any other folder on your computer. You can save files to “My Dropbox” or copy files to the folder even create or sync a backup to the DropBox folder. From any Office application you simply “File>Save As” and choose the Dropbox folder. Or in file manager or finder you simply drag and drop a file or multiple files to the Dropbox folder and the files are copied to your online Dropbox.
Think of this as an option for online backup for your files, photos or music?
Sharing adds a number of ideas and options. If you want to store files and access them from home and work or your computer and laptop or home and mobile phone or any combination you can do it.
After you get your account setup and starting adding files, simply install the Dropbox client on any other computer/mobile device and then login and access your files from other devices.
It’s like having a “personal file server” on the Internet.
Another way to use Dropbox is to share files with friends, family or clients. Simply create a folder in Dropbox and then right click or ctl-click on the folder to get the pop up menu. In the menu choose the Dropbox options and choose “share this folder.” You are taken to the Dropbox website and you simply enter your friend/client email address and they are invited to your shared folder.
You can view an overview video here: http://CyberInnovation.com/Dropbox
Now friends and famaily can access the shared folder via the website or install the small application on their computer or smartphone. They only access the folder you give them rights to, not your entire Dropbox!
At first you may think 2GB is a lot of space but before you know it you are sharing files with your spouse for home projects, clients files, photos, backups and more.
You can upgrade your account to 50GB and the annual cost is only $99!
Summary
I remember the days of having a server at home or the office, FTP access, sending files back and forth by email!
With a single Dropbox account I have multiple sub-folders each shared with different people. When a file is added or updated your shared contacts are notified.
This is an amazing service and one of those you wonder how we’ve lived without it!
To get your free account go to http://CyberInnovation.com/Dropbox and simply enter your name/email address and set a password.
If you have any questions or comments please post below.
If you use Dropbox let me know your experinces by posting a comment below
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