Rapid Web News

So many people have smart phones now. Almost everyone in our office has one, be it an Android powered device, a Blackberry or an iPhone.

With one of the biggest features of smart phones being their near anywhere web browsing, the mobile website market is every increasing. Going to a website on a phone which has not be optimised for mobile devices can be a huge pain to navigate well and could easily turn off your visitor (and potential customers), while an optimised website can make the experience a pleasant and swift experience.

In terms of mobile websites, there are two main types.

• Optimisation of an existing website

This mainly involves ensuring the website displays well on mobile devices, and tends to revolve around changing the styling for mobile devices which not performing any major functionality changes.

• Development of a full mobile site

Such development creates a bespoke, fantastically user-friendly experience, designed specifically for smart phone users. Such developments can be specifically designed for touch interfaces and can focus on quickly getting mobile users the information they require and directing their attention to the areas of your site that will let them enquiry or purchase the product/service your company is offering.

Without a doubt a fully fledged and specifically designed mobile site is the optimal solution for you and the best experience for your customers.

If you’re increasing in optimising your website for mobile phones or indeed, creating a bespoke mobile experience for your site, please feel free to get in touch!

Firstly, happy April Fools’ day to you!

There have been a crazy amount of April Fools’ jokes flying across the Internet today. Here are a few of the best from some of the biggest names.

Google Animal Translate

Google have supposedly released an ever so sneaky version of Google Translate that can translate animal noises in to English! This is a mobile application, suprisingly for the Android platform and is (not) available in the Android App Store.

Take a look at the video below or visit the ‘official’ Google Animal Translate application.

Firebox Do It Yourself Carbon Freezing Kit

Firebox is heavily known for its extravagant and crazy gadgets and gizmos. However, this one is quite a kicker – take a look at Firebox’s DIY Carbon Freezing Kit.

‘The freezing process itself is simple: just remove your clothes, lie down in the chamber, set the timer and…well, the next thing you know it’ll be 2040.’

Google goes into Nuclear Power Production

As part of a green initiative by Google, they intend to start producing super efficient nuclear power plants as soon as possible via a newly acquired company. Surely you will be able to Google Search the nuclear isotopes soon enough.

‘Google has acquired a company that has created a new process for highly efficient isotope separation, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. The primary use of this technology, say experts we’ve spoken with, is uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium is a necessary ingredient in the creation of nuclear energy, and one source we’ve spoken with at Google says that this is part of the Google Green Initiative. The company will use the new technology to enable it to design and possibly build small, mobile and highly efficient nuclear power generators. “Google has already begun building an enrichment plant,” says a high ranking IAEA source.’

Sourced from an ‘exclusive’ TechCrunch article.

ThinkGeek iCade – An Arcade Holder for the iPad

In a bit of funny move from ThinkGeek, they have released a product called the iCade, which is effectively and arcade machine shaped holder for the new Apple iPad. Over recent product releases include:

• moodINQ – A programmable electronic Tattoo system
• Tell Me Your Secrets Bear – A cuddly bear which had a microphone and camera allowing parents to spy on their children and their secrets.
• Canned Unicorn Meat – Which is… well, exactly what it says on the tin, apparently.

Plenty more…

It is still April Fools’ Day here and as such there are plenty more April Fools’ Day jokes and pranks going on worldwide on the Internet. If and when we find more hilarious pranks, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date.

• Google renames to Topeka – ‘Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.’
• Google Annotation Gallery – GAG is a open source libary for Java that allows programmers to easily express their emotions in the code… ‘The Google Annotations Gallery is an exciting new Java open source library that provides a rich set of annotations for developers to express themselves. Do you find the standard Java annotations dry and lackluster? Have you ever resorted to leaving messages to fellow developers with the @Deprecated annotation? Wouldn’t you rather leave a @LOL or @Facepalm instead? If so, then this is the gallery for you.’
• Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he’s from the future – He’s a time traveller from the future apparently, come here to stop the LHC experiments. When asked which country he came from, he answered: “Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I’m here to stop it ever happening.”

Happy April Fools’ Day!

I’ve been trying to get some clarity on what defines a ‘Smartphone’ and the true answer is…nobody knows! Its just a made up phrase by someone in the industry. Some believe that a Smartphone simply allows the use of Email and Internet. Ok looking into this further I see the first phone which allowed this functionality, using WAP, was the Nokia 7110 Dual Band GSM 900/1800 which was first seen in 1999! So if you’re still the proud owner of one of these antiques then you have yourself the very first, by some definitions, Smartphone…Congratulations.

Although this still isn’t good enough for me, if I go into a mobile phone shop and ask to see a range of Smartphones what would I be shown? Well searching for ‘Smartphones’ on the net turns up some varied and interesting results. The top 3 sponsored links display the Motorola Dext, BlackBerry Smartphones and the all new Palm Pre so I think we need to look at the common factors (I’m only using these as examples as they are the first to display, personally I’m waiting for my HTC HD2 to drop through the post any day now, ye-haw).

Firstly I was hoping that all of them are touch screen, but a lot of Blackberrys are not – yet they are still referred to as Smartphones. The plot thickens. The next thing I approached is the ability to use the myriad of different social networks at the touch of a button, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, My Space etc. Motorola listed this as one of its key features as did the Blackberry but I noticed a lot of Palm Pre users frustrated at the lack of an app for Facebook – so still pulling up short on what defines a ‘Smartphone’. It has to be unification in operating systems for phones but I know this isn’t true without even skimming the net.

Other definitions you may enjoy:

• ‘A ‘Smartphone’ is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality.’
• ‘Electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance.’ – This pretty much describes a laptop using Skype.
• ‘A generic name for voice centric mobile phones with information capability’ – this seems more realistic but we’re back to almost any mobile phone ever made!

Well I guess if ‘Smartphone’ is just made up corperate language to sell more PDA’s which you can also make phone calls on I guess I’ll go and run some ideas up a flagpole using some sky blue thinking to make sure all my ducks are in line…