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Category: iPhone

Music is a Universal Language


Sunday September 28, 2008

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Music is a universal language, it has no boundaries – no limits. When we find ourself in trouble or heartache the only thing that can make us happy is music. I live for music and my music lives through me, it is how I communicate with myself and others.

In the past the only way people could experience their music is with their ears, the only bands with music videos were big and commercialized. Digital Video Cameras and YouTube have allowed musicians to share their music across the spectrum. Everyone with a computer or an IPhone have the ability to watch and listen to your art. Flip cameras are a dream come true when it comes to sharing the experience of music. You can record a video and instantly upload it from your camera to a computer and spread it across the universe via YouTube and Google Video. The band that I am in has taken full advantage of Flip Cameras to help us share our music with the world. The image quality, as well as sound, is amazing!

Anybody who has a message, musical or not, has the ability to share it now. Flip cameras help musicians as well as businesses spread their word online like never before. Here are a couple examples of Flip videos:

Whiskey Change’s “West Love Blues”
La Fuente Restaurant Tucson Arizona
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In this issue of the newsletter we discuss:

  • A service that helps you determine which ad campaign is producing phone calls. 
  • Our new clients 
  • A listing opportunity for innkeepers 
  • The new Apple iPhone 3G 
  • Dick Fay’s new office location 

Track Your Phone Calls!

Your website is optimized for your keywords, your Adwords are in place, banner ads have been placed on directory sites and phone calls are coming in. Which campaign is bringing in those phone calls? How can we measure the effectiveness of our web marketing efforts when potential clients follow up with a call?

In order to improve services for our clients and track phone leads generated from your internet marketing activities Webconsuls has contracted with a company to provide voice tracking services. We have found that customers often make their initial contact via the telephone. To insure progress is monitored and tracked our new service uses dynamically generated phone numbers and scripting technology to determine the origin of these incoming calls.

How could this help your company/business?

  • Track multiple ad campaigns and even specific keywords to measure effectiveness and fine-tune strategy. Simultaneously track results from your website, Adword campaigns, social media and even keywords to find out where your telephone leads are being generated. Our new service will have the capacity to determine if a call is coming from organic or paid search results and which keyword was used in the query. 
  • Monitor your incoming telephone activity Are telephone calls being answered promptly? At what times are your phones the busiest? By tracking these activities a more accurate picture of your business can be drawn. Staffing adjustments can be made to insure all your telephone leads are being optimally managed. Call logs can be exported into spreadsheet software for use by management for reconciling phone bills or other billing activities. 
  • Phone call Routing and Forwarding Routing and forwarding settings give administration a variety of options. Set up a rotation with your staff to receive incoming phone calls. Route calls according to day of week and business hours to insure phones are covered during business hours and outside of business hours. 

These are just some of the new solutions which we are now able to provide. To discuss these opportunities and how they can be utilized with your business please contact Dennis.

Welcome new clients 

Webconsuls L.L.C. would like to welcome aboard the following new clients.

  • Cottonwood de Tucson http://www.cottonwoodrecovery.com/ 
  • Pro-Garages
  • Advanced Center for Eating Disorders a division of WhitesideManor.com 
  • Law Offices of Bruce Richland http://brucerichland.com/ 
  • La Fuente Restaurant, Tucson, AZ http://www.lafuenterestaurant.com 
  • The Bluffs’ Homeowners Community Association, Newport Beach, CA http://www.bluffshoa.com 
  • Bow Creek Recovery, Idaho

Innkeepers Opportunity

If you own a bed and breakfast inn, you have an excellent opportunity to obtain a free listing on a new Directory “When We Bed and Breakfast” at: http://www.whenwebedandbreakfast.com/

The actual “Add Your Inn” web page is found at: http://www.whenwebedandbreakfast.com/bed_and_breakfast_add/inn_destination_select.jsp

Be among the first to register, as the inbound links are often used by Search Engines in Link Popularity measurements. This directory sorts and organizes each inn by a detailed list of amenities. To be sure that your amenities are listed correctly and completely we encourage all of our inn keepers to enter the information for their establishment.

New iPhones, have you thought about it?

July 11, 2008 the highly anticipated world release of the 3G iPhone happened. Here at Webconsuls we have found the iPhone to be a great business devise and Social Media Optimization tool. This second generation device has 3G connection speeds to ensure a fast connection for online browsing, uploading pictures and gathering email. The new iPhone has GPS built in to help you find your location, obtain directions, and be integrated into new iPhone applications. IMAP connection ensures that the email you opened, replied to and filed on the road via your iPhone is also filed in your home computer.

With the release of the new iPhones comes the iPhone 2.0 operating system. One of the upgrades with the new iPhone operating system is the capacity to download applications designed specifically for the iPhone. As this list of applications grows we will be testing and reporting on applications which may interest you. Darin has posted instructions for how to download iPhone Firmware for your iPhone on the Webconsuls Blog at http://www.webconsuls.com/blog/2008/07/install-iphone-20-fireware-today.html.

Dick Fay has new office location

This past month Dick Fay moved to Palos Verdes Estates. While his email, voice phone number and cell number remain the same, below you will see his new mailing address, office location and fax number:

W. Richard Fay
Webconsuls, LLC
1328 Granvia Altamira
Palos Verdes Estates, California 90274
(310) 378-8575 – voice
(424) 260-2179 – fax
(310) 809-8929 -cell
dickfay@webconsuls.com – email

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Check out these great iPhone apps as tested by Linda McClure.

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Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Using iPhone > Installing and Using iPhone Applications 

I am having issues with my new iPhone 3G and I wanted to share them with you. I have noticed that the new 2.0 verision was about half as stable as the old version, and after a hard crash all of my apps stopped working.

A quick trip to the Apple support forums confrimed my fear, I have stubbledupon yet another know issue with the iPhone. Here are the steps I used to fix it. (Come on Apple! We Need a REAL fix here ASAP!)

After you have synched with iTunes, if  your downloaded apps stop working,  {On my iPhone they open then close blip!}  From your iPhone, go to the app store and download a free app, which will ask you to log into your iTunes account, when your new app is done downloading and installed, switch your iPhone all the way off by holding the power button and the home button until you see “slide to switch off” then slide the switch off. Wait a bit then switch your iPhone back on, all apps should be present and working. Y.M.M.V.

Did this help you get your iPhone Apps working, or did you use another method?

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There is a world out there, more of a world. With the push of a button, a million possibilities await you; this Utopia is smaller than a note card, and lives inside your pocket. The new IPhone is the cutting edge of technology, the Alpha y Omega; there are many instruments that try to compete and at the surface appear to be similar, but with a little investigation you find something quite unique.

Your music, photos, and email accessible with a touch-screen, is only the tip of the iceberg; real time GPS and any kind of application you could think of, with more to come. The question is not what your IPhone can do? Rather, what can your IPhone not do? Having the ability to manage your social media real time makes social media more universal. Millions of web sites have and are making their pages IPhone friendly; companies have become aware of the implications and the potential of this virtual treasure chest. Wake up on time, plan your day, work from anywhere, and do all of this while listening to your favorite tunes! On a daily basis I find something new and exciting regarding the capabilities of this hand held computer. I am experiencing the joy of this product, like no other gadget I have ever had; at times the excitement can be too much to handle.

I can still remember: my first desktop, my first laptop, my first Discman, and my first IPod. The desktops were bulky and slow and were inefficient; speed got better, but what about size? Laptops made up for the size problem, and for a time satisfied your needs; but you could never fit your laptop into a pocket. Discmans made sound mobile, but they skipped and you had to carry all your cds with you wherever you went. IPods held all the music you wanted and could fit into a pocket, but in a pocket already containing: car keys, cell phones, palm pilots, and whatever else one carries with them daily. Was all the clutter convenient?

It seems like so long ago that I started this technological ride into the future. I felt like I was on the brink of something amazing taking place; with every year that passed, the horizon became closer. The anticipation of a new gadget that would make my computer more universal, faster, and a little better was what I dreamed about. The release of the IPod was the pinnacle of technology when it came to media; first with music and recording, and then with video. I was satisfied beyond belief with IPod, and wondered where Apple could go next with this device? A phone? An IPhone?

With the advent of the IPhone it became very clear that the sky was the limit. You could now manage your whole life with this masterpiece; from organizing your media, all the way to managing your business, work and play had truly become One. Isnt that what life is about? The freedom to accomplish your needs from wherever you exist at any given moment; especially in this fast paced world, a world where every second counts, when he who arrives first gets the prize. The plot has been set, the characters are in their right places; I welcome you to the climax, enjoy!

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While I was going to be writing this mornings blog about my snazzy new 3G iPhone, Alas, I was not able to spend 6 hours in a line to purchase one.

Think of how many 3G iPhones they could have sold! 2 Million????

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Went to the Mission Veijo Apple store yesterday afternoon to witness the iPocalypse.

Apple, you should have released the 2.0 update a week ago.

Were you able to get a new 3G iPhone yesterday?

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Found a good one from MacRummors, Where and how to download and install the new iPhone 2.0 version firmware. Yes folks! It is now time to start installing those Apps on your iPhone!

Download the iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw file (download that here)

Now you will need to update your iTunes, in iTunes Store search for “apps” then click on the title of one of the free apps and try to “Get App” this will prompt you to download and upgrade your iTunes. Do so, and run iTunes and plug in your iPhone.

PLEASE FULLY SYNC BEFORE MOVING FORWARD!!!!

You install your iPhone firmware to 2.0 by manually by pressing the “Option key” on your Mac or the “Shift Key” in Windows when you are pressing the “Check for Update” button for your iPhone in iTunes. You can then navigate to where you saved the iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw file and click open. And you are walked thru the remaining steps! It is that easy!

Got iPhone 2.0 Yet?

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Wouldn’t you like to know if someone you have friended on your favorite social network was in your neighborhood? Say to hook up with like minded sports fanatics, or nerds? There is just such a service and it is called BrightKite, a “Location Based Social Network” and it is in invite only beta. If you would like a BrightKite invite reply to this post and we will make sure you get one. With BrightKite you can post your location to predetermined place marks, or send your location via sms. Once you login to a placemark you can email in photos of your location that others who are on your friends list can check out the seats you had at the game, or the sushi you are about to eat for dinner.

And it works great on my iPhone.

Got BrightKite?

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Watch Steve Jobs unveil the new iPhone 3G, Apple’s new App Store, MobileMe, and more in the 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address from San Francisco’s Moscone West.

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That is if you want to buy your new Apple iPhone in Germany. The 8gb model will get a price cut from 399 euros to only 99 euros ($155) to clear stock out for the release of the 3G iPhone in 60 Days.

When iPhones hit the $150 price point in the US, EVERYONE will have one.

Is Your Site iPhone Ready?

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I am one of those people who need to justify most purchases. When that iPhone came out my creative juices started flowing. Hmmmm … how can I convince myself that phone is vital to my existence, maybe not vital, but how can it help me? Sometimes you just need a little inspiration. The iPhone is a powerful tool and with every update new functionality is added.

Social Media takes time. Some say it takes more time than they can fit into their hectic lives. What if all you needed was a mobile phone? You could promote your business in your down time, those frustrating times when you can’t really do anything productive, the commute home, waiting for doctors appointments, waiting in line at the grocery store, you could even use that iconic device to open up conversations about your business.

Here is a list of the ways I have used the iPhone for social media optimization.

1. The dynamic duo “photos” and “camera” turn you into a photoblogging superstar! Take a picture and upload immediately to your blog. Get more bang for your post and cc your social sites while you are at it. Setting will have to be preloaded and the contact for each social site added to your contacts for easy and immediate access. Once settings are in place shoot your tantalizing picture and post. Be sure to add a compelling title.

2. Find the videos you have loaded up on YouTube and watch them, send them to social sites, email them to contacts, or make the person in line with you at the grocery store watch it. Bookmark your videos on your iPhone. Depending upon your industry and chattiness you will find opportunities to share your videos.

3. I was never a text message sender before the iPhone, but the iPhone’s large (by mobile standards) qwerty keyboard makes it easy and accessible. Combine your iPhone with a microblogging client such as Twitter and there are a variety of combinations to utilize. For example: Monitor your keywords and find the conversations as they happen. Using Twitter you can add ‘bots’ to search conversations which have your keywords in them. These messages containing your keywords can be sent directly to your phone and then your conversation begins. IMPORTANT POINTER: Be sure to adjust your text messaging package to insure your keyword alerts do not exceed your current text messaging package.

Buy technology you love and optimize your settings, bookmarks and features to remove all obstacles to using that technology.

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Watch this Youtube video and learn how to set up Gmail IMAP on the iPhone in one minute and thirty six seconds.