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Downcast for iPhone adds CarPlay integration for enhanced podcast playback
There’s a new podcast app option for CarPlay fans out today: Downcast. The popular iOS and Mac podcast player updated today to add CarPlay integration, enhanced VoiceOver features, scrubber improvements, and lots of battery life and bug fix improvements.
Downcast wrote a bit on the app blog to talk about what to expect from the CarPlay integration:
Customization
CarPlay is meant to be safe and easy to use. To ensure that, Apple has limited customization of the UI. This is why you’ll find that most audio apps on CarPlay are quite similar. I can’t change the font, move labels around, add additional labels, or customize the now playing screen. These things just aren’t possible at this time, and that’s probably a good thing.
Limited List Items
Downcast limits lists in CarPlay to a maximum of 100 items. This is an arbitrary decision meant to control performance and improve safety. If this creates a problem for you, I suggest creating a playlist on your iPhone with appropriate episode inclusion settings to make a manageable list.
Downcast also limits lists in CarPlay to include only ready-to-play episodes. That includes those that are marked for streaming, are downloaded, or queued for downloading.
For the uninitiated, CarPlay is an infotainment feature in cars that lets supported iPhone apps project and control information on built-in screens.
Pro tip: you can remove Apple’s Podcasts app from the CarPlay Home screen and move Downcast to the front page by disabling Podcasts in the Restrictions section in the Settings app on iOS (as long as it’s the next alphabetical CarPlay app installed).
Downcast is available for iPhone plus Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. The podcast player is currently $2.99 for iOS/watch OS, and $7.99 on OS X. CarPlay integration is a free update to existing Downcast for iPhone customers. Find more apps with CarPlay integration here.
Filed under: Apps Tagged: CarPlay, CarPlay apps, Downcast, Podcast, Podcasts
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Speck’s CandyShell Clear lets users choose the right time to upgrade their iPhone
Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings results were historic in more ways than one. While Apple’s revenue during the holiday quarter was an all-time record for the company, Apple did indicate that iPhone unit sales would drop year-over-year for the first time next quarter. “We do think that iPhone units will decline in the quarter,” Cook told investors on this week’s call, though observers are quick to point out that this may not be a negative outcome. This simply raises the question: why?
Perhaps users are holding out for the iPhone 7 after the comparatively minor iPhone 6s launch was Apple’s sole-iPhone debut in 2015. Another possibility, however, is that people are holding on to their older devices longer because protective case accessories allow iPhones to last longer.
Indeed, Cook did tell investors on the call that the existing iPhone 5s “continues to do quite well” and that 60% of active iPhone users are using models older than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which were launched in the fall of 2014. That means that only 40% of iPhone users are working with the latest form-factor found with the 6 and 6s lines.
With all that in mind, cases such as its the CandyShell Clear from Speck Products contribute to older models lasting longer, giving consumers a way to stretch their dollars until their next upgrade. Speck created a case packed with protective features and a slim design to help consumers get the most out of their iPhone. The following are the features of the CandyShell Clear that help it stand out from the competition:
- Completely clear iPhone 6 case with two layers of next-generation clear material that resists UV yellowing.
- Military-grade drop protection. Certified to meet or exceed MIL-STD-810G drop test standards.
- Patented one-piece, multi-layer design. Patented design provides two layers of protection. Exterior polycarbonate layer disperses impact while interior TPE layer absorbs shock.
- Patented raised bezel screen protection. Bezel rises above screen to guard glass from direct drops onto phone face and prevents screen from scratching when laying flat.
- Precision-engineered slim fit. CandyShell Clear protects iPhone 6 without adding unnecessary bulk.
- Perimeter port and camera protection. TPE liner protects ports from drops without compromising sound or photo quality.
- Lab-tested durability. Durability testing against extreme temperatures, cracks, and abrasions.
- Responsive button protection. Rubberized covers shield volume and power buttons while keeping them fully accessible.
Critically, using a case gives users a position of power to dictate when they can want to update, allowing users to wait until the next model instead of having to upgrade mid-cycle due to a broken device. Even with the exciting iPhone 7 launch this fall, users may be inclined to hold on to their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, or iPhone 6s Plus if their phone keeps working properly thanks to a protective case.
While many readers are early adopters who will spring to purchase an iPhone 7 regardless of the condition of their current smartphone, there is a large percentage of the market that is clearly content with using an older iPhone model so-long as it continues to properly function. With cases such as Speck’s CandyShell Clear, this may continue to be the situation for years to come, and these types of protective cases also ensure that it’s the user, not potential damage, who indicates the right time to upgrade.
Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: best protective case, clear case, iPhone 5se, iPhone 7, protective, shell, Speck, Upgrade
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The Best 5 Websites to Find Online Jobs for Freelancers
The cost of living in modern times is so high that extra income is by all means necessary. Fortunately, several sites and online platforms have arisen which grant people the ability to work for various organizations in different capacities, and as per their availability, opposed to being permanently employed by one organization and in one capacity for a fixed income. This practice is called freelancing.
The Top 5 Freelancing Sites
Formal employment as we know it today is becoming scarce by the day thanks to a rapidly growing global population and with it, the stiff competition for such resources. Freelancing is thus becoming the main income-earning channel for many would-be job-seekers. The discussion that follows aims to identify and explain the top 5 best sites to find online jobs with the aim of aiding potential freelancers to get started in this field.
Toptal
Toptal is a tech start-up company that is based in San Francisco, California area. It basically links engineers, software developers, and web designers among other technical graduates with prospective clients. It is currently available in 35 countries mostly in Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle East. Prospective freelancers are subjected to very strict screening before being admitted.
Read our review
Freelancer
Freelancer is an online platform which grants prospective workers otherwise known as freelancers the opportunity to register, create a profile, and then bid for work from among the several projects of various categories that are posted there from time to time. It accepts freelancers from around 247 countries and has plenty of work indeed. It is one of the biggest freelancing websites in terms of the number of clients, freelancers, and projects posted.
Read our review
Upwork
Upwork is a freelancing company that was formed as a result of a merger between oDesk and Elance. It enables freelancers to create profiles and then bid for jobs of various categories including but not limited to web development, online writing, design & creativity, customer service, accounting & consultancy, and administrative assistance. Upwork is another huge freelancing website, with more than 4 million clients seeking workers for their projects.
Read our review
Guru
Guru is an online company that is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It brings together freelancers looking for work and millions of clients worldwide. Freelancers are only required to visit the company’s website, create a profile, and select work depending on their areas of interests and technical expertise from such categories as writing & translation, administrative support, sales & marketing, engineering & architecture, and management & finance, to mention but a few. It is one of the oldest freelancing websites out there.
Read our review
PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour was founded in the year 2005 and based in London. Its mission is to aid small technology companies who may not be able to hire full-time workers to secure the services of skilled workforce worldwide. Freelancers, especially those who specialize in Information Technology, are thus granted the opportunity to work for prestigious IT companies worldwide in areas such as web design, web development, web content creation, and web promotion, and in doing so, earn very generous amounts of money.
Read our review
Work on your Own Terms
Freelancing is one of the huge businesses today. It connects millions of clients with millions of freelancers. It provides amazing benefits for both the client and the freelancer. As the client can hire freelancers on demand, or per project basis, freelancers can work from home and in their own time. In addition, freelancers can bid on projects that they like and ignore the ones that they do not. Also, they can bid an amount that they think is suitable for the work being required to be done. Such benefits mean freelancing will continue to grow in the future.
The post The Best 5 Websites to Find Online Jobs for Freelancers appeared first on Project-Management.com.
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Apple reportedly building secret research team to develop virtual and augmented reality tech
During this week’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook answered a question on virtual reality by saying “I don’t think VR is a niche…It’s really cool and has some interesting applications.” It looks like Cook’s statements have some background to them. According to a new Financial Times report, Apple had reportedly been prototyping VR headsets in the past under Steve Jobs in the mid-2000s, but the project was eventually abandoned once the technology was found to still be immature. With new acquisitions and a dedicated VR team, the effort is said to be once again a new focus.
Apple has been going on a hiring spree in the world of virtual reality as of 2013 with their acquisition of PrimeSense. Reportedly the VR/AR research unit at Apple has hundreds of staff from multiple previous acquisitions including past employees from Microsoft’s HoloLens team as well as Lytro.
With their latest acquisition reportedly being Flyby Media, a company that worked with Google in developing some of the 3D positioning software for Project Tango, it looks like Apple is reinvigorated to taking this new direction seriously.
This has been an interesting two-weeks behind Apple’s VR news as Doug Bowman, a top virtual and augmented reality researcher, was recently hired by Apple to help expedite the efforts for the platform. Although Apple’s Jony Ive told the New Yorker that the face was the “wrong place” to put technology, the secret research unit at Apple is said to have been building prototypes of possible headset configurations in the past several months.
The report goes on to claim that Apple is moving foward by building out the secret VR/AR team at the company. Earlier this week, 9to5Mac’s Chance Miller opined about the state of VR and how Apple should increase its role in the space. Now it looks like that may actually be a reality. You can read the full report here.
Filed under: iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: Apple, AR, Augmented reality, Doug bowman, Flyby Media, iOS, Jonathan Ive, Lytro, Microsoft, Project Tango, Tim Cook, Virtual reality, vr
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How-To: Automate weight logging w/ the Health app using Siri, Workflow, or a smart scale
When news came out that Apple was working on a dedicated Health dashboard app, which would offer a way to take healthcare monitoring mobile, I was extremely excited. I had been recently diagnosed with traumatic arthritis in my knees and I needed a better all-in-one system to track my steps, weight, and BMI. None of the other apps on the market at the time seemed to do any one of those three especially well. Apple’s Health app has since become my go-to app for everything I wanted to log and more. It’s not perfect, but it’s a built-in dashboard with tie-ins to plenty of iOS apps.
Within a few weeks of using Health, I soon realized I wanted a better way to automate inputting data into the system. I eventually came to a methodology that worked great for me and decided it was time to share three of the different ways you can automate quickly logging your weight into the Health app.
Workflow
Before I decided to make the plunge into purchasing a smart scale, I knew I wanted to start taking advantage of automating my weight tracking immediately. Many of the other apps that existed out there made the steps to get in and actually log weight just too cumbersome and complicated for what I really needed. This is where Workflow delivered for me.
Workflow (currently $2.99), released a little over a year ago, is an Automator-like tool for iOS. You’re are able to combine different actions together to create something akin to small apps, a workflow. When Workflow was first released, I knew I would be able to use this to log my weight without having to rely on an expensive smart scale. If you’d like to get started using the workflow I created, open this link on your iPhone after installing Workflow.
For this particular workflow, I only needed two actions: ‘Ask for Input’ and ‘Log Health Sample’. Once they were added in, I then changed the workflow’s settings so that it was set to a ‘Today Widget‘ and ‘Apple Watch‘ workflow. From there, every morning I would wake up, walk to my basic bathroom scale, and then log my weight directly from Notification Center or my Apple Watch.
Siri
Want a less robust but free automation solution? A bit of a hidden feature of Siri in iOS 9 is the ability to be reminded of whatever is currently in context in any given supported app. For example, I could be looking at an iMessage thread, activate Siri, and say “Remind me about this in 15 minutes.” It would then create the reminder for me as expected, but it also includes a direct link back to that Messages thread.
This becomes especially useful for remembering to actually log your weight. The biggest problem I had at the start of my whole weight-logging experiment was that I frequently forgot to log it every morning. The more data you log, the more interesting trends will be. To mitigate this, I opened the weight section under the Health app and told Siri “Remind me of this every day at 8:30 AM”. Now when the reminder comes in the morning, I can just launch directly into the Health app from the reminder and input my weight in the correct section.
For those that have configured weight-logging using the Workflow app from above, using Siri here is also a great way to bring it one step closer to full automation since you can build them both together.
Smart Scale
After nearly a year of logging my weight using a mix of these automation methods, I eventually decided it was time to upgrade this process and get a smart scale. I wanted to get a more precise read-out of my weight changes than just relying on a basic scale.
Apple has listed the Withings Smart Body Analyzer under its health accessories for the a long time, and with good reason too. Although our primary focus is on weight logging, the Withings scale includes a cornucopia of other features including air quality monitoring and heart rate measurements. The most attractive part of this scale for me was the fact that it also supported logging multiple family members, up to eight different users. It’s a great way to get the whole family more aware of their health in general. Another popular alternative smart scale is the Fitbit Aria which has the advantage of integrating directly into the Fitbit ecosystem, while the Withings solution speaks to Apple’s Health app using HealthKit.
Using the power of Workflow, Siri, and a smart scale, it becomes extremely easy to start recording health data and monitoring what it means for your well-being. With all these methods mixed together, I am now logging three major health points. With the smart scale I log my weight and BMI, and with Siri and Workflow, I am logging my caffeine and water intake as well.
How are you using the Health app in your day-to-day life? What tools and accessories are you using to make logging the data more useful? I’m always looking for new ideas, so let us know in the comments below!
Workflow is available for $2.99 in the App Store and is compatible with iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch (Health is only available on the iPod touch and iPhone). The Withings Smart Body Analyzer is available now for $99.99 in black or $149.99 in white, and the Fitbit Aria is available for $119.
Filed under:
How-To, Apple Watch, Apps, iOS, iOS Devices, Tips and Tricks Tagged: Apple watch, Automation, Health, Healthbook, HealthKit, iOS, iOS 9, iPad, iPhone, Notification Center, Siri, Withings, Workflow
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: LG 55-inch 1080p Smart HDTV $490, best-selling iPhone VR Kit $20, Samsung 1TB SSD $289, more
Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:
Daily Deals: LG 55-inch 120Hz 1080p Smart HDTV $490, Car FM Transmitter w/ Bluetooth $11, more
1080p 60Hz LED HDTVs — LG 49-inch: $300 (Reg. $400), RCA 46-inch: $250 (Reg. $300)
Amazon’s best-selling iPhone Virtual Reality kit $20 Prime shipped (Reg. $40)
Samsung 850 EVO 2.5-inch Internal Solid-State Drives: 1TB $289 (Reg. $325+), 2TB $586 (Reg. $618+)
App Store Free App of the Week: Piloteer goes free for the very first time ($2 value)
Award-winning iOS platformer Thomas Was Alone is now available for just $1 (Reg. $5)
Apple’s Get Productive iOS App Sale 50% or more off: Things, Clear, Duet Displays, Deliveries, much more
Highly-rated puzzler Osmos now 80% off on iPhone & iPad: $1 ea. (Reg. up to $5)
Apple 11-inch MacBook Air 1.6GHz/4GB/128GB (newest version): $730 shipped (Reg. $899)
Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch tablet 128GB Wi-Fi in all colors: $870 shipped (Reg. $949), more
MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:
Mohu over-the-air HDTV antennas (open-box): Leaf 50 Ultimate $30 shipped (Reg. $40), more
- Games/Apps: Wii U Mario Kart 8 bundle $260 (Reg. $300+), Worms3 $1, iOS freebies, more
- Fashion: 40% off Under Armour Performance Gear – Hoodie $30 (Reg. $45), more
- Amazon Gold Box – up to 50% off puzzles: Melissa & Doug 4-foot Fire Truck $8, more
MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:
iPhone 6/s/Plus Car Mounts w/ Prime shipping: iOttie One Touch 3 $17 (Reg. $25), Magnetic Air Vent $6 (Reg. $8)
Apple TV 32GB w/ Siri Remote and HDMI Cable $126 shipped (Reg. $149+), 64GB $176 shipped – also now available in refurbished condition via Apple
- Samsung 11-inch Chromebook 2 2.16GHz/2GB/16GB SSD: $149 (Reg. $190+), more
- Garmin nüvi HD 5-inch GPS w/ Bluetooth and Lifetime maps (refurb) $130 (Orig. $270)
- Upgrade your home’s lighting w/ this 4-Pack of Philips LED Bulbs for $10 (Reg. $20)
- Apple Watch Space Gray Bands – 42 or 38mm: Stainless Steel $21
- Rihanna’s latest album ‘Anti’ was released last night, download it right now for free
- Magazine bundle subs from $4.50/yr: Wired, Popular Science, Men’s Health, more
- Bluetooth 20W Speakers: Sony SRSX5 $80 shipped, TaoTronics $40 shipped
- Give your Apple Watch and iPhone a home w/ this aluminum dock: $10 (Reg. $14)
- ULAK iPhone 6/s/Plus, iPad mini 4 and Android cases from $1 (Orig. up to $30)
- Samsung D3 Station 4TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive $100 (Reg. $130+)
- Free Xbox Live Gold Games for February: Hand of Fate, Styx Master of the Shadows, more
- Free PS Plus Games for February: HellDivers Democracy Strikes Back, more
- 8 utility Mac apps: $5 (and rising! Orig. $392)
- Headphones: NRG Wood In-ears $13 (Reg. $25)
- Prime Members: VIZIO Sound Bar w/ Wireless Sub $198 shipped (Reg. $218)
- Moe’s Southwest Grill: Buy One, Get One Free burrito promotion
- Sam’s Club 1-year membership + $20 gift card $45 ($120 value)
- Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem + NETGEAR Router: $100 ($160 value), more
- Free eBook download: “IT Guide to Mac Backup for Business”
- Bluetooth Speakers: Omaker Splashproof $20 (Reg. $30), Inateck $30 (Reg. $40), more
- Dell 24-inch Widescreen LED Monitor: $100 shipped (Reg. $130)
- Media: new Blu-rays $10 – Jurassic World, Minions, more + BOGO offer
- USB Power: Anker Astro E5 16,000mAh Dual-Port $25 (Reg. $40), more
- Aukey adapters: Bluetooth 4.1 Audio Receiver $11, Car FM Radio Transmitter $11
- $10 Free towards your next flick: Regal $50 Movie Gift Card for $40, more
- iPhone 6/s/Plus Cases: Folio Style $9.50 (Reg. $19), Clear Bumper $4 (Reg. $8)
- AirPrint Color Laser Printers: Brother $150 shipped (Reg. $200)
- Several refurbished 12-inch MacBook w/ Retina display models are now available
Game pre-orders for Amazon Prime members –Zelda, Far Cry Primal, FFXV: $48 ea (Reg. $60)
Pay What You Want: The 2016 Mac Bundle ~12
Work Faster & Smarter on Your Mac with 12 Apps to Clear Your Hard Drive, Enhance Audio, Track Device Activity & More
NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:
Fluance mixes mid-century design with Bluetooth technology in its new Hi-Fi system
Aereo’s founder is returning with a new ISP that beams gigabit speeds into your home
- This German eBike blends a minimalist design with serious battery power
- You have to see NERF’s new Crossbow and Zombie Brainsaw that are coming out this fall
- Upcoming 2016 LEGO sets focus on Marvel, Star Wars and City collections
- Razor introduces two new electric-powered products at Toy Fair 2016
- Netflix February Preview: Better Call Saul – Season 1, more
- Check out Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial starring Alec Baldwin and Dan Marino
- It took a year of planning and 18,000 pieces to create this custom LEGO Arkham Asylum build
Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Best Buy, Daily Deals, free apps, Gold Box, video games
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Mobile Payments: Awesome or Overhyped?
So, we’re firm believers that your buyers should have several different options when it’s time to pay for their purchases. You don’t want to lose a sale just because you only take credit cards and your buyer only uses PayPal. What happens when buyers have way too many options for mobile and online payments?
The Walmart of Mobile Payments
No, really, Walmart decided to release their own mobile payment program called Walmart Pay. Who wants to play second fiddle to Apple forever? Not Walmart, that’s for sure. And with a retail app that boasts 22 million active users, a mobile payment option seems like the right way to go, right? If buyers are on board enough to download and use your app, then they’re probably all in on the payment options, too.
Well, buyers weren’t quite so impressed with the Walmart Pay option. It’s not that it didn’t work or that it didn’t offer a viable payment solution. Buyers simply had their payment plans worked out already. Why make the switch from the payment option they’d always used just because Walmart introduced something new?
Apple’s Not So Awesome, Either
We know that 4.9% of Apple Pay eligible sales were actually paid with Apple Pay during the holiday shopping period of 2014. It was new technology, and surely the idea would eventually catch on. That optimism should have led to a higher number of Apple Pay purchases on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it didn’t.
This year, during the holiday shopping period, Apple Pay eligible transactions actually almost halved. Instead of growing, only 2.7% of eligible sales were completed through Apple Pay. Isn’t this supposed to be the answer to all online sales? Seems consumers disagree.
Growth in Awareness and Use
With over half of online purchases made this past year on mobile devices, it’s obvious buyers love the convenience of mobile shopping. Of those buyers, 52% only recently realized that their phones could be used as a payment device. Did they jump immediately into using Apple Pay or another mobile payment option?
Nope.
Since its introduction, the use of mobile payment has only increased by 1% year over year. That’s a pretty clear sign that consumers just aren’t that into it. What’s not entirely clear is why buyers have been slow to adopt mobile payment options.
What Would Change Things?
In the face of overwhelming proof that consumers need to feel safe when making online purchases, mobile payment options consistently take that secure feeling out of the payment process. Yes, sellers need to remove as much friction as possible between the “want” and “own” stages, but some friction is necessary. When buyers don’t need to enter passwords or PINs, they may feel as though the payment process is too easy. And if it’s too easy for them, it’s easy for someone who might attempt to steal their financial information.
Then again, maybe the market is just too saturated as it is. Those who enjoy using online wallets may just stick with their years-old PayPal account, while the rest are fine entering their credit card information any time they want to make a purchase. To interrupt the status quo may require a great deal more innovation than we’ve seen so far.
What are your thoughts about the slow adoption of mobile wallets?
Google finally launches an AdWords app for iPhone and iPad
Google has finally launched a full-fledged iOS app for users of its AdWords advertising service. The AdWords app arrives today as the first official iOS app for the service and it’s available for both iPhone and iPad users now.
The Google AdWords app helps you stay connected with your ad campaigns from anywhere, using your iPhone. You can easily view your ads’ performance on the go with this simplified companion to your desktop account. So you can keep your campaigns running smoothly—no matter where your business takes you.
The app lets AdWords customers view their campaign stats– like clicks, CTR, CPC, etc– as well as manage bids and budgets, contact Google experts for support, and get real-time notifications for updates on their active campaigns. Google also notes users will be able to “act on suggestions to improve your campaigns” from within the app.
Google has a new video walkthrough of using the AdWords app:
The comapny previously launched AdWords Express for iOS users, but the app only allowed management of campaigns for customers of the AdWords Express service aimed at small businesses.
For now Google says the new AdWords app is currently for existing customers only, but we’re guessing it will lift that requirement at some point.
The new Google AdWords app for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now. Google has more info on using the new AdWords app for iOS in its support docs here.
Filed under: Apps Tagged: adwords, App Store, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone
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Review: Naim’s first wireless speaker, the mu-so, is worthy of the company’s audiophile heritage
Naim Audio isn’t a household name outside of audiophile circles, but this British company has for many years made some of the most respected amplifiers in the business. Naim long had an informal partnership with Linn, and if the standard audio system fitted to Bentley’s ultra-expensive cars isn’t good enough for you, the optional audio upgrade is to a Naim system. You’ll also find it available through the Apple Store.
The company is notoriously conservative when it comes to new technology, refusing to even consider making a CD player for most of the 1980s, relenting only in 1989, when it felt the technology had developed sufficiently to allow it to deliver the quality it sought. It’s therefore no surprise that Naim has waited so long to launch its first wireless speaker system, the mu-so – nor that it has done the job properly when it finally did so.
The price is also no great surprise …
Getting your hands on the Naim mu-so will set you back a cool $1500. Like the even more expensive Devialet Phantom I tested last year, for most people that’s a price you expect to pay for a complete hi-fi system rather than a standalone speaker. The question, then, is whether the mu-so is a serious contender to act as your main hi-fi?
Look & feel
This is, in a sentence, a stunning-looking piece of kit. The brushed aluminum casing with massive cooling fins running the entire length of the rear gives it a look that is at once reminiscent of very traditional hi-fi and at the same time gives it a modern, minimalist look. The sculpted front cover is available in a range of colors. The base of the unit is clear perspex, with an embedded Naim logo that lights up when the speaker is connected to a device. There’s not an exposed screw in sight, not even on the underside. It’s a piece of kit that would look instantly at home in the most Apple-like of homes.
All you see in the way of visible controls is a large single dial that combines a touch-sensitive panel with a mechanical rotary volume dial. At the right-hand end are analog and digital inputs, together with an extremely discreet multi-color indicator light used during setup, and a reset button. Underneath, next to the mains power socket, is an optical input and Ethernet socket.
If I have one small complaint about the looks it’s the perspex base. It’s very funky-looking, but if you need to run the power cable to the left rather than the right it’s visible through the perspex. But in a permanent setup, I’d tack the cable down neatly.
The unit is heavy, at over 28 pounds. Each of the six speakers – two bass, two midrange and two tweeters – has its own amplifier, so the weight is explained by the contents as well as the aluminum-clad wooden chassis.
You could argue that there’s really no need for physical controls in a wireless speaker, as everything can be controlled from the iDevice. This is true, but the combined touch panel and volume control is so utterly gorgeous in both look and feel that it’s almost a gadget in its own right! The touch sensitivity is perfect, and it has indicators that light up to let you know exactly what’s going on. Above, for example, we can see that the music source is AirPlay.
When you rotate the volume dial, the display switches to lit volume segments. The movement is beautifully smooth and perfectly weighted. It’s such a joy to use that I – Mr Gadget – actually found myself walking over to it to adjust the volume rather than doing it on the Mac or iPhone.
As soon as you stop rotating the dial, it returns to the standard display. Only the outer ring rotates, but it’s so finely engineered you get the impression that the whole thing is moving.
The meaty-looking cooling fins at the rear of the unit do the job they’re designed to, keeping the unit cool to the touch.
Remote
The remote is the one thing that lets the mu-so down – and it does so very badly indeed! This is a beautiful-looking aluminum-clad speaker system, yet the remote is … black plastic. It has no weight to it, and looks and feels like the sort of remote you’d expect to get with a $200 speaker, not a $1500 one.
Granted there’s really no need for a remote unless you have conventional hi-fi sources as well as iDevices: you can control it from your Mac or iOS device. All the same, it’s inexplicable to me why Naim would make such an aesthetically pleasing piece of kit only to pair it with a cheap-and-nasty remote. I would stuff it in a drawer out of sight.
Connectivity
This system does it all when it comes to input sources: AirPlay, Bluetooth, UPnP, Spotify Connect, Tidal, wired Ethernet, USB, optical and 3.5mm analog. It also supports mp3, FLAC, AIFF and WAV at up to 24-bit/48KHz, with 24-bit/192KHz available if you use Ethernet instead of wireless. Finally, it offers multi-room support for up to five rooms.
There’s a Naim app that allows you to control the system, including built-in access to Internet radio stations with presets available on the touch panel, but you don’t need to use this. I just used it as an AirPlay device to stream from iTunes on the Mac and the Music app on my iPhone.
Setup is quick and easy. It does suffer from the usual occasional flakiness on AirPlay, but that’s an issue with the protocol rather than the speaker. As I find with all my AirPlay kit, it drops out once or twice very early in each session but is solid after that.
Sound
So, to the important bit! Does it sound as good as it looks?
Yes. Yes, it does. The maximum volume isn’t quite up there with the Devialet Phantom’s ‘legal limit for a nightclub’ level, but this is true room-filling sound, and there is no trace of distortion even at maximum volume.
The mu-so delivers chest-thumping bass and crystal-clear treble, and the overall sound is beautifully neutral. Naim has clearly worked hard at this and doesn’t want the likes of you or I messing with it: there are no equalization controls on the unit itself, nor in the Naim app – the only configurability is a setting to tell it how close it is to a wall behind it so that the speaker can automatically compensate. You can, of course, use iTunes or the Music app to tweak things, but – in my view – you won’t need to. It’s perfect right out of the box.
Conclusions
If you want ultimate volume from an all-in-one hi-fi-quality unit, the Devialet Phantom Silver is the setup for you. But if you don’t plan to use your speaker as a weapon, the Naim mu-so delivers all the volume you could possibly want in a true hi-fi unit that looks as beautiful as it sounds.
The Naim mu-so costs $1499, and is available direct from the Naim Audio Amazon store.
Filed under: Reviews Tagged: AirPlay speakers, bluetooth speakers, Hi-Fi, Naim, Naim mu-so, Naim mu-so review, Premium audio
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Report: Apple looking to produce its own exclusive TV shows as original content for iTunes
Apple has dipped its toes in original content with projects like the Beats 1 radio station, but there has been a lot of speculation around whether the company will ever produce its own media content, as both Amazon and Netflix have shown it can be very lucrative, launching many successful independent television series in recent years.
According to a contributor report from The Street, Apple is now looking to take that jump. It wants to produce original TV shows as exclusive content for its iTunes library offerings, according to the report, having spoken to ‘members of the Hollywood creative community’ late in 2015. These new TV shows could form part of a future Apple TV cable subscription service.
Don’t get too excited just yet about the idea of original content from Apple. For starters, the report is somewhat sketchy, given its provenance as a ‘contributor’ article on The Street’s site, but the author is a known media reporter. He used to write for Reuters and Bloomberg and certainly has connections with Hollywood business. Even if the report is true, though, it says that no shows have been commissioned for production yet. The report gives the impression that Apple is conducting very early stage meetings about such projects.
The Cupertino-based tech giant began sounding out Hollywood’s creative community late last year, but has yet to sign any agreements, according to two people with knowledge of the overtures. One plan is to have deals in place so Apple can announce exclusive content as part of a cable-like offering in September, when it is expected to unveil its iPhone 7, said one of the people.
The rumor mill has floated the idea of Apple launching a ‘skinny bundle’ internet cable service for Apple TV many times, but nothing concrete has ever transpired. Many media execs have gone on record regarding the talks, indicating it is a real project within Apple. Most recently, Apple was said to have shelved the idea facing pushback from the TV networks. Building its own content portfolio will let Apple offer compelling exclusive video content for its users as well as increase its leverage against the TV networks for its cable service negotiations.
Other reports have signalled Apple’s interest in buying Time Warner, owner of HBO which makes Game of Thrones and other popular TV series. An acquisition of HBO would certainly give Apple a headstart in producing its own content.
Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple TV, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: app, Apple TV, iTunes, original content, store
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How We Increased Organic Traffic by Over 50% Using Technical SEO Updates
We’ve got a confession to make: We’ve been making a few rookie SEO mistakes within our own website.
For a company that is supposed to be at the forefront of inbound marketing and SEO, this isn’t something that we’re entirely proud of. But even experts make mistakes, right?
Instead of shying away from these oversights, we thought we’d show you where we went wrong so that you don’t make the same mistakes. More importantly, we’ll show you what we did to fix them and how these solutions resulted in us growing our organic traffic by more than 50% in just one month.
The Importance of Technical SEO
Technical SEO is often something that’s thought about when you first put your website together. It’s typically based on best practices that include things like:
- Only having one H1 on each page
- Having your highest value pages linked to from the main navigation
- Adding alt attributes to all of your images
- Creating clean URLs without dynamic characters
- Ensuring page load times are kept to a minimum
While these factors are all fairly simple, you’d be surprised how many websites get this stuff wrong. For example, making on-going technical tweaks can do wonders for your organic traffic growth, yet a lot of companies only look at technical issues once and then never look at them again.
When I joined HubSpot last year, I had the chance to take a fresh look at everything that we’d been doing to date and to start asking more and more questions about our strategy. Were we making any of these little mistakes? I set out to find out.
One of the first things that I started to look into were the factors contributing to the success of some of our best content. From here it lead me to run a detailed audit of our website to identify potential problems and areas where there were opportunities for growth. I soon started to realise that we weren’t as perfect as we thought …
7 Technical SEO Problems (And Solutions) We Learned the Hard Way
Problem 1: Broken Links, Redirects & the 404 Page
Whenever someone tried to visit a URL that didn’t exist on our website, it redirected them through to our 404 page. For example, when you visited http://ift.tt/qJIQ1r, it would 301 redirect you to this page.
This is usually a good thing because it says to Google, “This page doesn’t exist so don’t crawl the page.” If Google were to crawl all of these incorrect URLs then they would waste a huge amount of time, and ultimately spend less time crawling the pages we want them to.
Unfortunately our 404 page wasn’t actually resolving a 404 server response. Instead, it resolved a 200 response. In other words, it said to Google, “Hey, I’m a real page so come and crawl and index me!”
This was an enormous problem because Google was wasting a ton of its time crawling and indexing non-existent content on our site. But that was just one of the issues …
The other (bigger) issue was the fact that a lot of these incorrect URLs have come about because people had linked to us incorrectly from other websites. Take this URL, for example: http://ift.tt/V53yQk. It has 370 links from 84 domains pointing to it, including a .gov link — and it doesn’t exist.
What we were doing by redirecting all of these pages to our “/not-found” page that resolves a 200 response, is pass through all of the PageRank to that “/not-found” page instead of directing it through to the correct URL or a relevant page. Yikes.
Here’s a crazy stat: The “/not-found” page had over 8,000 backlinks from over 2,000 different domains. If only we were trying to rank that page …
What We’ve Done About It
The first thing that we’ve done is remove the 301 redirect pointing any page on the offer.hubspot.com or www.hubspot.com subdomain through to the “/not-found” page. This means that if the incorrect URL hasn’t had a 301 redirect set up to the correct page then it will go to a 404 and tell Google to not include it within their index.
The second thing that we’ve done is remove the “/not-found page” so that it goes through to a 404 page and isn’t treated as a site page on our website.
The third and final thing that we’ve done is set up 301 redirects for all of the incorrect URLs that have been linked to so that they point to a relevant or correct URL.
Why Is This Good?
The number of pages indexed by Google should drop dramatically and Googlebot will focus on crawling the pages more important to us more frequently, rather than larger volumes of URLs less frequently.
On top of this, all that lovely PageRank will be pushed into the content we want to rank for and give it a huge boost from the influx of new links pointing correctly to it.
Problem 2: Blog Pagination
One of the things that was directly affecting the blog content on our website was the way that pagination was being handled within the listing pages. There had been issues with the way that we linked through to the listing pages in the blog, i.e. http://ift.tt/1WRCmSs, http://ift.tt/1PmODN3, etc.
All we had was a ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ button and these hadn’t even been styled properly. It wasn’t so much of a UX issue because it’s very rare that our visitors were clicking on them — where it was a problem was within the search engines.
When Google crawls our site to find content, it has to follow links on our webpages until it can find the page it’s looking for. To find a page that was written say, a year ago, it had to navigate to the blog and then follow each ‘Next’ link until it reached the blog listing page with a link to that article.
Every time Googlebot (and any other search bot for that matter) follows a link, it’s digging one level deeper in the website’s architecture. The deeper it goes, the less authoritative the webpage is in the eyes of the search engines and the less it is crawled. In some cases, if a page is very deep in the architecture, it may not be crawled at all.
What We’ve Done About It
We wanted to design the pagination navigation on the blog in a way that enabled Google to jump multiple pages at a time in its crawl and raise a large portion of our blog posts significantly higher in the website architecture.
To do this, we implemented the following navigation:
Why Is This Good?
The inspiration for this solution came from my talented colleague, Pam Vaughan. Pam is heading up another project around republishing old content on the blog to push it higher in the architecture and ultimately rank better. (Click here to learn more about her historical optimization project.)
If this works well, we could see a number of blog posts all receive a ranking boost as a result. This is a simple and small change but it could add a ton of value. In any case, this is a big improvement to our blog content architecture and to the general UX of the blog.
Problem 3: Blog Schema Markup
To date, we hadn’t used any Schema.org markup across any of our blog content (or any of our content for that matter) so that Google can break down and understand the individual elements within our webpages. Whoops.
What’s that?
In layman’s terms, Schema.org markup is used so that the search engines can understand what type of content is on your webpage(s).
What We’ve Done About It
In the case of our blog, we marked up the code on all of our blog posts to tell Google the following things:
1. This is a blog post.
2. This is the featured image of the blog post.
3. This is the date and time it was published.
4. This is the headline of the article.
5. This is the body content of the article.
6. This is the category which the article falls under.
7. This was published by HubSpot.
8. This is the name of the author of the post.
9. This is the URL of the author’s page.
10. This is an image of the author.
11. Here’s a brief description of the article.
You can actually check this out by using Google’s structured markup tool. Simply click on Fetch URL, enter a URL of one of our blog posts, and then click Fetch and Validate. Once you do that, the tool will show all of the data under the BlogPosting dropdown.
Why Is This Good?
This is a good thing because Google will be able to better understand our content and can make more informed decisions on how to display it. Google often uses this data to help customise search result snippets and results within their Knowledge Graph.
It’s not going to make a revolutionary impact but it’s well worth doing.
Problem 4: Custom H1 & Intro on Topic Pages
Within our blog we recently set up a new and improved Topics page. When this was launched I started looking at some of the individual topic pages and noticed that there was nothing to really differentiate the way that they looked from one another. With this being the case, it was difficult to make a case to Google for why these pages should rank in the search engines.
What We’ve Done About It
For each of our blog topic pages we had a generic heading to the page that didn’t explain what it was. It would just say it was the HubSpot blog and give a feed of posts. We’ve now added in a custom H1 relevant to the topic, such as “CRM Blog Posts,” as well as a short custom description for the topic.
Here’s an example:
Alongside this, we’ve added a “/topics” page to each of our international websites to improve the blog architecture.
Why Is This Good?
Each of these blog topic pages were the same and there wasn’t really any unique content that could help them rank in search engines at all. We’ve added this from both an SEO and a UX point of view.
Problem 5: HREFLANG Tags
Turns out, we had a pretty big HREFLANG tag mess on our hands.
What’s a HREFLANG tag? Well, HREFLANG tags are used to let Google know what alternative versions of a page exist in different countries/languages. For example, if we want to tell Google what the Spanish equivalent of our .com homepage is then we can use one of these tags to do this.
They work in a similar way as a canonical tag does to show when a duplicate version of a page exists. But in this case, it helps Google index local content easier within local search engines. (Click here to learn more about how they work.)
What We’ve Done About It
Previously, our HREFLANG tags were all over the place, and in most cases, implemented incorrectly. This wasn’t doing our international SEO efforts any favours.
After a lot of hard work, we’ve managed to set these up for all of the core pages that have country-specific variations — all the product pages, homepage, etc. An example is on the /products page:
<link rel="alternate" href="http://ift.tt/z2p6OW" hreflang="x-default">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://ift.tt/z2p6OW">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-DE" href="http://ift.tt/1PmOCsz">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="http://ift.tt/1FWIjWx">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-FR" href="http://ift.tt/1PmODNe">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja-JP" href="http://ift.tt/1WRCmSA">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="pt-BR" href="http://ift.tt/1PmOCsB">
Why Is This Good?
We’re now creating a solid link between our main site page content on the .com site and the content on our international domains. This will pass trust across our sites and improve the way Google crawls these pages.
Problem 6: Language Meta Tags
Ever heard of Language meta tags? Well, it turns out we were missing those, too.
Language meta tags are slightly similar to HREFLANG tags in the sense that they tell search engines what language a piece of content is written in. The tags should be present on all webpages so that search engines can easily understand which country version of their search engine to index them into. In particular, Bing uses these tags a lot. (Yes, Bing is still a thing.)
What We’ve Done About It
Up until now we’d never had any language meta tags set up across any of our web properties, including our international sites. An example would be within our German site where we now have the following code implemented into each page:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="de-DE" />
Why Is This Good?
Whilst this isn’t going to give us massive spikes in traffic, it will help search engines crawl, index, and rank our local content more efficiently.
Problem 7: XML Sitemap
On our offers.hubspot.com subdomain we house all of our offer content. In a nutshell, this is all of the content that we use to generate leads with — our ebooks, templates, webinars, etc. This is the content that we really want to rank well in the search engines.
Guess what? We didn’t even have an XML sitemap set up for this subdomain.
What We’ve Done About It
We went through and created a brand new XML sitemap for all of our offers content and have submitted this to Google. (Want to learn more about sitemaps? Read this.)
Why Is This Good
The architecture across this subdomain still needs quite a bit of work but this will do a good job in helping Google discover any new content that we publish and get it ranking quicker.
The Results
The above graph speaks for itself really. Moral of the story: Don’t underestimate the power technical SEO changes.
What technical SEO issues have you run into? Share your experiences in the comment section below.
As expected, iTunes Radio stations no longer available without an Apple Music subscription
Apple announced a couple of weeks ago that its ad-supported iTunes Radio stations would no longer be available from today, and they have now gone off-air as expected. Attempting to access them results in a message prompting people to join Apple Music. Free access to Beats 1 remains.
Join Apple Music and get stations for every situation. Plus, stream just about every song ever recorded, get handpicked recommendations, explore our experts’ take on the nest new music.
The FT recently reported that Apple Music now has more than 10M paying subscribers.
Filed under: Apple Music
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What Motivates an Internet Troll? The Science Behind The Internet’s Least Favorite People
In the depths of almost every internet community lives a troll. A snarky, quick-witted adversary waiting for an opportunity to insert an offbeat remark or uninvited comment.
With 5.6% of individuals admitting that they self-identify as trolls or enjoy trolling online, it’s likely that you or someone you know has had their feathers ruffled by one of these menacing online villains.
Known for displaying high levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism, internet trolls get a rise out of distressing others. In fact, they typically feel no remorse for their actions. But why? What fuels them?
For answers to these questions, check out the video below from the folks at AsapSCIENCE on the anatomy of the modern internet troll.
Have you had an encounter with an internet troll? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
Building Business Ideas That Succeed: How to Preflight Your Ideas
Do you have a great idea for a business? Is there a new product you want to create? To discover how to improve your chances for success, I interview Pat Flynn. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers […]
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– Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
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The Art of Turning Off: 7 Ways To Do Your Best Work (By Forgetting About Work)
Creative work takes a tremendous amount of energy.
So much energy, in fact, that “turning off,” or forgetting about work for a period of time can feel counterproductive to a marketer who is set on creating something engaging and effective – especially if they’re under a deadline. That’s when it’s hardest to get past the guilt of tuning out and turning off.
Why? Because it seems like you’re wasting time. But are you really?
Are you doing yourself a disservice every time you step away — whether it’s for a short break or long retreat? Or are you investing in your work, and ensuring that it will be as fresh, creative, and persuasive as your potential allows?
Science says it’s the latter …
The Benefits of Turning Off
Basically, “turning off” means taking a break from work — and not thinking about it while you’re away. Of course, all breaks are not created equal.
How long you turn off for, where you go, and who you’re with during your time away are just a few variables that make every break unique. But regardless of the circumstances, studies continue to prove that you’ll return a better, stronger, and more aware version of yourself.
Specifically, a couple beneficial things will happen:
You’ll improve your performance.
According to a study conducted at The University of Illinois, brief diversions from a task can trigger a dramatic improvement in one’s ability to remain focused on that task for a prolonged period of time.
In the study, 84 participants were divided into four groups and asked to focus on a repetitive computerized task. The control group worked on the task for 50 minutes with no breaks. The “switch” and “no switch” groups had to memorize four digits before taking on the task, and had to respond if they saw one of those digits. However, the “switch” group was presented with the digits twice. Finally, the “digit ignored” group was also shown four digits, but were asked to ignore them.
The group that saw no drop in performance? The switch group, as they were given two brief breaks to respond to the digits which allowed them to stay focused.
So if you’re feeling guilty about taking a break, keep in mind that intermittently leaving your work will refocus you, and can actually give you clarity. When it comes to writing, clarity is the mother of desire and action.
You’ll be better prepared to come up with creative solutions.
While it’s easy to assume that day dreaming or taking a break is a waste of time, a study conducted at The University of British Columbia revealed that our brains are actually highly active when we daydream — more so than we previously thought.
When we relax and take a break from challenging thinking, we allow our thoughts and ideas to incubate in our minds. And this ultimately sets us up to generate new, creative solutions.
For example, a study from the University of California, Santa Barbara revealed the benefits of daydreaming by tasking 145 undergraduate students to come up with uses for mundane objects such as toothpicks, bricks, etc. The students were assigned to one of four conditions. While one group received no breaks, three groups were given a 12-minute break to a) rest, b) perform a short-term memory task, and c) do something boring that would allow them to daydream.
As it turns out, the group of students left to daydream came up with 41% more possibilities than other students.
(Click here to read more about the hidden benefits of daydreaming.)
You’ll avoid burnout.
When you keep pushing through work without taking a break … it shows. Your energy levels slip. Your smile fades. And your overall demeanor takes a turn for the worst. Not to mention, it can lead to larger issues such as exhaustion or chronic stress.
While the fear of being seen as replaceable or not having the time to take time off will often keep you from taking the plunge, you won’t be doing anyone any favors when you’re burnt out.
According to an infographic from CityPass, almost nine out of ten American workers feel like time off increases their happiness, and 91% of business leaders admit that employees who take time off typically return feeling recharged and ready to work more effectively.
Moral of the story? Book that trip. Your work will be there when you get back.
How to Take More Breaks and Forget About Work
Experiencing these benefits, of course, means you must turn off. And that’s not something we’re all good at.
To make it easier, check out these seven tips designed to help you take a break from the grind and recollect your thoughts. You’ll notice there are a variety of suggestions — from quick time management breaks to full-fledged sabbaticals — so you’re sure to find something that makes sense for you.
1) Follow the 20-20-20 Rule.
Known for being the go-to strategy to avoid straining your eyes and developing a repetitive stress injury (RSI), the 20-20-20 Rule also doubles as a nice, frequent break for people who sit in front of a computer all day.
Here’s what you do: Set a timer to go off every 20 minutes you’re at your desk. As soon as you get the alert, look away from your monitor and stare at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
This is a good opportunity to zone out and enter your “diffused” mode — where who knows what’ll happen next.
2) Use the Pomodoro Technique.
In the late 80s, a man named Francesco Cirillo invented an easy productivity method that people still use and love. (And he named it after that kitschy timer your mom used to let you twist.)
Here’s what you do: Set a 25-minute timer and start working. When it goes off, stop working for five minutes. Use your five minutes any way you like, and then promptly get back to work as soon as they’re up. Do that four times in a row, and then take a 30-minute break before starting your fifth session.
By locking you into a timeframe, the Pomodoro Technique incites urgency, which may inspire you to make quicker decisions and waste less time.
3) Capitalize on your Ultradian Rhythm.
We sleep in cycles, alternating between two forms of sleep: REM (deep, dreamy, restful sleep) and non-REM (less deep, more superficial sleep). And while one may be more intense than the other, both forms must alternate in intervals of 90 minutes to achieve a truly restful night of sleep. It’s called the Ultradian Rhythm, and it just so happens that it’s present in our waking lives, too.
Here’s what you do: Set a timer for 90 minutes and begin working. Silence your phone. Block Facebook. Don’t even stop to edit your work. Just work. When your timer goes off, stop working and take a break for 15 minutes. While taking a break seems unproductive, the act will actually help you balance your energy and avoid burnout. When you’re done, try it again by focusing on a different project for 90 minutes.
By keeping with the ebb and flow of your body, you’ll maximize your productivity and creativity. Skeptical? Here’s the groundbreaking study that proves it’s true.
4) Actually allow yourself the weekend.
Hopefully, employing some of the more micro time-management methods above will help you clear your workload throughout the week, leaving you completely free over the weekend — which is what you want, right?
Here’s what you do: If years of workaholism have made “turning off” a difficult and unnatural task for you, divide your weekend into activity chunks (the way you would a work day). Doing so may help you become more comfortable with the idea of doing nothing.
Leaving your work computer switched “off” for two days in a row may feel weird at first — like a strange emptiness — but it’s a healthy mental exercise and it’ll help you write your best copy.
5) Take random days off.
The U.S. Travel Association commissioned a study that found that American workers are using only 77% of their paid time off. That adds up to 169 million forfeited days, which amounts to a whopping $52.4 billion in benefits that were simply given up.
Don’t do this. It’s your time. And it’s there to help you make the most of your work.
Here’s what you do: If you have some spare days in the bank, give yourself a three-day weekend. Or schedule a Wednesday off and break up the week. Then use that time to do something other than work.
Go ahead. Use your time however you want. (Or look into one of these hobbies that are proven to make you smarter.) And if you’re not at peace with the idea of turning off for an entire day, find solace in the fact that employees who use more vacation days end up with better performance reviews (and higher salaries).
6) Leave the country.
In 1997, Dan Pink left his job as Chief Speechwriter for then-VP, Al Gore, and began writing books about business, work, and human behavior. He’s since authored several best sellers, including To Sell Is Human, in which he references the concept of the “jolt,” which, I think, is particularly advantageous.
Pink writes:
Try a jolt of the unfamiliar. Clarity, we’ve learned, depends on comparison. But many times we become so rutted in our own ways that we scarcely notice what we’re doing or why we’re doing it — which can impair our ability to bring clarity to others. Sometimes, as Tufts University psychologist Sam Sommers says, “it takes a jolt of the unfamiliar to remind you just how blind you are to your regular surroundings.”
Here’s what you do: Take Dan’s advice. Give yourself one of the following “jolts.”
- Mini Jolt. Sit on the opposite end of the conference table at your next meeting. Travel home from work using a different route from normal. Instead of ordering what you usually do at your favorite restaurant, choose the eleventh item on the menu.
- Half Jolt. Spend a day immersed in an environment not typically your own. If you’re a teacher, hang out at a friend’s law office. If you’re an accountant, take an afternoon and spend it with a lifeguard or park ranger.
- Full Jolt. Travel to another country, with a culture different from your own. You’ll likely return jolted — and clarified.
Remember: Clarity is the mother of desire and action. It’s the ultimate fuel for a marketer. And a Full Jolt is one way to clear your mind and renew your perspective.
7) Escape on sabbatical.
If leaving the country is a Full Jolt, then taking a sabbatical would be a concussion — a derailing, crippling concussion for your career, that is. At least that’s how some people see it. But depending on your professional circumstances, that’s not always the case.
If you’re employed by a progressive company that appreciates the benefits of a sabbatical, then you’ll know that a leave like this has the potential to do wonders for your productivity.
Here’s what you do: If you get the opportunity to take a sabbatical, do it. It might just change the way you think, act, and create for the better. And at the end of the day, that’s the whole point.
What are your best tips for “turning off” and regaining focus? Share them in the comments section below.
Report: Apple developing long range wireless charging tech for iOS devices
According to a new report out of Bloomberg, Apple is working to develop wireless charging technology that could make its way into an iPhone by 2017. The report claims that Apple is working in conjunction with partners in the United States and Asia to develop the technology. The technology is said to allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than current charging mat and inductive solutions allow.
Apple, of course, has to face several technological barriers when it comes to wireless charging. One of the primary issues with its solution is the loss of power over distance. This means that the further a device is away from the receiver, the longer the batteries would take to charge.
Exact details on Apple’s solution to problems like the loss of power over distance are unclear at this point. The report says that even Apple is still analyzing its options and how exactly it wants the technology to be implemented. Wireless charging has been a rumored feature for the iPhone 7, which will launch later this year. This report, however, makes it seem as if we won’t see the feature implemented until whatever iPhone Apple launches in 2017.
Apple has filed for a handful of patents relating to wireless charging technology. In 2010, it filed a patent application that suggested a device like the iMac be used as a hub for wirelessly charging iOS devices that were as far as 1 meter away using something called near-field magnetic resonance.
The Apple Watch is capable of wireless charging, but in a much different manner. It uses inductive charging, meaning the Watch must be touching the charging pad in order to gain power. This is similar to many Android manufacturers have implemented wireless charring into their devices over the years. We’ve also seen a variety of third-party cases that enable the inductive method to be used by the iPhone.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple is able to implement wireless charging that is capable of charging a device that’s further away from its power source.
Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Apple, iPhone, wireless charging
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Tesla hires the guy who pioneered Apple A-series processor line
From Electrek:
We’ve learned that Tesla this month quietly hired high-profile microprocessor engineer Jim Keller as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Tesla today confirmed the news and sent us the following statement:
Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.
Before his stint at AMD with former Apple colleague Mark Papermaster, Keller was a director in the platform architecture group at Apple focusing on mobile products. There, he architected several generations of mobile processors, including the chip families found in millions of Apple iPads, iPhones, iPods and Apple TVs. Prior to Apple, Keller was vice president of design for P.A. Semi, a fabless semiconductor design firm specializing in low-power mobile processors that was acquired by Apple in 2008.
Apple to open its third retail store in Istanbul, Turkey later this year
Apple looks to continue its rapid expansion of its retail stores according to a reliable local report from MacReports. The report claims that Apple is working towards launching another retail store in Istanbul, Turkey. The company is reportedly assembling a team to lead the process, as well as advertising new available positions in Turkey relating to the opening of another retail store.
The report claims that Apple plans to open the new retail location sometime this year in the Asian part of Istanbul. The store is expected to be location in the Emaar Square Mall, following trend with Apple’s other Istanbul locations, which are also located in malls.
Should it come to fruition, this store will be Apple’s third location in Turkey. The company opened its first Istanbul retail store in the Zorlu Mall back in April of 2014 and opened its second location in October of 2014 in the Akasya Mall.
With only two retail locations in Istanbul and a population of over 14 million people, it certainly makes sense for Apple to want to open another retail store in the country to take the strain off of the first two locations, which are said to be incredibly busy.
Apple has been rapidly expanding its retail presence around the world over the past year. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Apple is opening its fifth new retail location this month alone in China. With the newest location, Apple now operates 33 retail stores in China. Apple is also said to be working towards opening retail locations in India, having recently filed paperwork with the Indian government to do so.
(Image via MacReports)
Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, istanbul, retail, retail store, Turkey
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