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Adobe Creative Cloud update adds 3D modelling tool Fuse – and waves goodbye to Flash
Adobe’s latest update to its Creative Cloud software suite introduces a new 3D modelling tool, Fuse – and renames Flash Professional CC as Adobe Animate CC in recognition of the fact that HTML5 has now become the dominant standard for web-based animated content. Steve would be pleased.
Creating realistic 3D faces and bodies has always been one of the toughest challenges for designers, a task Adobe aims to make very much easier with the addition of a new app in the Creative Cloud armory: Fuse CC. The app, which is currently a Preview version, is intended to allow anyone to easily create animated 3D human models …
You don’t need 3D expertise or expensive 3D software. With Fuse CC you can easily assemble your own human characters using a wide selection of body parts, hair choices, clothing items and clothing textures like leather, cotton, metal and plastic […]
Save your characters directly to your Creative Cloud Libraries, and then drag them into Adobe Photoshop CC to pose and move them thousands of different ways using the enhanced Properties panel. Fine-tune your characters’ movements even after you’ve placed them in a scene.
You can mix-and-match faces and bodies, and then add everything from hair to shoes.
Adobe has made Fuse available as a free preview to all Creative Cloud members, but notes that the offer runs for “a limited time” so it’s worth grabbing now.
Adobe has also updated the entire Creative Cloud suite with a range of few features. Photoshop CC gets a UI with customizable toolbar and the addition of Design Space (Preview), intended to help UI and web designers generate results in fewer clicks.
Illustrator CC introduces a new Shaper Tool, which Adobe says “lets you draw with loose, natural gestures that magically transform into perfect geometric shapes” – together with faster ways to create and edit vector shapes.
The remaining apps see a range of new features.
Filed under: Apps Tagged: Adobe, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Photoshop, Creative Cloud, Fuse CC, Photoshop
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Google Hangouts now lets you reply on the Apple Watch; Twitch brings Whispers to iOS
Google has updated its Hangout app to allow you to reply direct from the Notifications screen – and as Engadget noted, that also means you can now send replies from your Apple Watch. As usual with Watch apps, that means either choosing from a range of canned responses, or dictating a reply using Siri …
You’ll need to ensure that Allow Notifications and Show in Notification Center are both on:
Hangouts brought a new UI to iOS back in the summer.
Gameplay recording and streaming app Twitch has also been updated for iOS users, bringing its private message feature Whispers to the platform for the first time, after initially trialling it on Android.
Both Hangouts and Twitch are free downloads from iTunes.
Filed under: Apps Tagged: Apple watch, Apple Watch apps, Google Hangouts, Hangouts, twitch, Twitch Whispers, Whispers
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OnePlus thinks your iPhone should feel like their Sandstone Black Android phones [Gallery]
Android smartphone maker OnePlus is no stranger to unusual marketing tactics. Whether it’s because it’ll only sell phones to those with an invitation, asks customers to trade in their iPhone or Samsung phones for one of its devices, or by leaving out features many Android fans love, it seems to promote discussion with whatever it does. Its latest move is equally interesting, to say the least…
Today, OnePlus has officially started selling iPhone cases in its popular ‘Sandstone Black’ finish. For the unaware, the original OnePlus One smartphone’s rear cover came with this case, as does the OnePlus 2’s. It’s essentially a black plastic with a rough, sand-like finish. A lot of customers love it because of the extra grip. Personally, I much prefer a softer finish. Regardless, OnePlus believes you want to feel this Sandstone Black texture on your iPhone 6/6s so it made you a case.
Like all things from OnePlus, the Sandstone Case is packed in attractive, minimalist packaging. Sliding off the lid reveals the case sitting right on top, while on the inside of the box lid is a physical invite card. Not only does OnePlus want you to feel the texture of its flagship phone, it also wants you to buy the OnePlus X (its 5-inch all-glass and metal smartphone).
As plastic shells go, there’s nothing really wrong with the OnePlus iPhone case. There are well-placed cutouts in all the right places and it’s very easy to apply. It adds a little thickness to the phone and a lot more grip. If you’re biggest concern with the iPhone 6 is how easily it slips out of your hand, the OnePlus case might not be a terrible idea. Still, personally, I’m not a fan of the texture as I find it too rough to want to hold on a daily basis.
As for the invite card, that’s a simple piece of white plastic with a scratch-off portion on the back which reveals the unique invite code for those who want to buy a OnePlus X. Some of the cases even come with invitations to buy a limited edition ceramic-backed model of the device.
The OnePlus Sandstone case is available to buy today from OnePlus.net in the US, UK and mainland Europe for $19.99/£15.99/€19.99.
Filed under: iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: Accessories, Android, iphone 6 case, iPhone 6s case, OnePlus, OnePlus X
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Should Publishers Blog?
Once upon a time, blogging was considered amateur. Trained journalists and editors viewed platforms like Blogger and LiveJournal as communities where ‘just anyone could write.’
Well, that was precisely the point.
The biggest value proposition that blogging brought to the table was the democratization of great ideas. Anyone could launch their own blog and start writing–there was no formal education or media job required. That’s why blogging caught on.
Today, mainstream media companies are harnessing the power of blogging. The Atlantic, a 158-year-old company, recently made the decision to launch a section of its site called Notes, which will be a place for “first thoughts, running arguments, stories in progress.”
Now, you have no excuses to say that ‘blogging isn’t for you.’ If The Atlantic can make such a bold move, so can you. Here are some ideas to keep in mind along the way:
The ‘Story Behind the Story’
The Internet has spoiled modern audiences. Curious and research driven, they’re looking for more than just the polished stories in front of them. They want to venture behind the scenes–something that mainstream media companies don’t have an outlet for on their core websites.
Publishers can take a lesson from content marketers in that many business blogs provide community forums, in addition to opportunities for employees and awesome writers to share their favorite ideas. For a great example of a business blog providing a fun reading experience, check out Canva’s Design School. The content gives the software company a much-needed, ‘behind the scenes’ experience. In addition to experiencing Canva’s core product, you also learn what the company values.
As a media company, you have your own brand, too. Even though you’re publishing high-volume content, you may not be letting your inner voice and personality shine through. Every story has a story behind it–how an idea came to exist or where someone had to travel to find a source. It’s valuable to go off the record.
For a good idea of this idea in action, check out Slate’s ‘Dear Prudence’ column. Emily Yoffe frequently took her readers behind the scenes to share her thoughts and to catch readers up to where her letter writers are now. What’s interesting about the Slate example is that it’s integrated with the core site. But some media hubs aren’t able to pull this dynamic off and will need to launch an ‘off platform’ experience.
A Sense of Community
While news outlets are optimized around facts, blogs are optimized around opinions. It’s okay for writers to get a bit relaxed when creating blog content. Of course, writing needs to be factually accurate. But does it need to be grammatically perfect? No. Is it alright for witty writers to have their own opinions? Absolutely.
By letting your organization’s human voices shine through, you’ll naturally attract more people. Share thought provoking ideas on your blog, and encourage your audiences to leave comments and share their own ideas.
Blogs can create a sense of community on your website. Just look at The New York Times, as an example–a media company that is well-known for its rich commenting activity. When the New York Times recently went through a major redesign, one of the top complaints was that audiences were having trouble finding and tracking comments.
Readers love the NYTimes comments so much that they complain when there’s a UX change.
Test Beds for New Ideas
Media companies need to innovate too. While your taxonomy may be static, it will evolve over time–to keep audiences engaged, you may need to venture into new content areas. But how do you know, ahead of time, if a new idea is worth testing with your specific audience?
Blogs provide a testbed for new editorial ideas. Run your favorite new story ideas, promote what you write on your distribution channels, and measure the interest that you’re generating from readers. You can even use your blogs to test new technologies, run surveys, or collect interest-based data.
Your blogs, while providing awesome content to the world, will also provide sandboxes for testing. Make sure that your media company stays innovative and continues to build on its successes by deploying your ideas, faster.
So, Should Publishers Blog?
The decision of whether to blog will be different for different media companies–there is no such thing as a simple “yes” or “no.” If you’re wondering where to get started, take a look at your reader base’s existing content consumption patterns. Conduct a few qualitative interviews with them to understand what types of blogs and media sites they like to read. If you determine that a blog is in your audience’s best interest, go for it without thinking twice. Follow The Atlantic’s bold footsteps.
5 Visual Content Tools to Boost Engagement
Do want to create stronger visual content for your social channels? Looking for tools to help? A number of budget-friendly tools make it easy to create visual content that invites your social media audience to engage with it. In this article you’ll discover five tools for creating visuals that engage your social community. #1: Quiz Your […]
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The Difference Between Earned, Owned & Paid Media (And Why It Matters for Lead Gen)
An effective content strategy doesn’t rely on only one tactic.
Generating qualified leads requires you to regularly publish compelling, valuable content, explore guest blogging opportunities, identify co-marketing campaigns, and devise a strategy for promoting said content.
While content is a fairly general term, it’s important to note that there are different types of media that can be leveraged in the process. Knowing the differences between each type of media — earned, owned, and paid — and how to combine them is critical to the success of your lead generation efforts.
To help you effectively execute on all three, we’ll walk you through the nuances of each below, as well as some suggestions on how to leverage them for your company.
The Difference Between Earned, Owned, and Paid Media
Combining earned, owned, and paid media will help you attract, nurture, and close leads, but what do those terms really mean? And when it comes to your company’s content strategy, how do they fit into the equation?
While all three media efforts are important to your overall goals and should converge in your strategy, there are still distinct differences.
Earned Media
Quite simply, earned media refers to media exposure you’ve earned through word-of-mouth. Whether it was the fantastic content you’ve distributed, the influence of your SEO efforts, the customer experience you’ve delivered, or a combination of all three, earned media refers to the recognition you receive as a result.
You can earn media by getting press mentions, positive reviews, reposts, recommendations, etc. You can also facilitate earned media by helping journalists and content writers author their articles, or contributing your own thought leadership content to industry publications.
Thanks to the rise in popularity of social media platforms like Twitter and Quora, it has become easier for content writers and journalists to reach out to your business for quotes and insights to mention in their articles. This type of accreditation helps build trust around your expertise.
At Influence & Co., we earn most of our media through press mentions with our partners and our own guest-contributed content. For example, our co-founder, John Hall, has a regular column on Forbes, where his contributed content helps to drive both traffic and leads for our company.
So whether you’re earning mentions on external sites or you’ve earned an opportunity to contribute to them regularly, this type of media helps to fuel the top of your funnel and introduce you to new leads.
Owned Media
Owned media is content you’re in full control of. Think of content for your company website, your blog, and your social media accounts.
While owned media content can take on a variety of forms — blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, etc. — the primary goal of this content is to continue providing value to leads as they move down the funnel. These assets offer a more controlled — but not overly promotional — message about your company.
So if you’re looking to warm up leads that you’ve generated with earned media or win over some more, it’s important that you’re focusing on producing these educational, valuable resources. At the end of the day, this content can help leads determine whether or not working with you is the right choice for them.
Paid Media
While today’s media influx may make it difficult to get your company’s message heard organically, it also brings with it an influx of methods to promote it. Paid media serves as a method for promoting content and driving exposure. And there are variety of paid techniques you can use to amplify your owned media and help you win more earned media.
For example, social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest offer advertising options that can be leveraged to boost your exposure. We’ve found that LinkedIn and Twitter are the most effective promotion platform for our audience of B2B marketers, but you can utilize a similar strategy on Facebook or Pinterest. It all depends on where your target audience is the most active and engaged with your brand.
How to Use Paid Media to Amplify Your Owned Media
As I mentioned before, combining these elements can prove to be really powerful in terms of generating and engaging leads. To help illustrate this, let’s dive into two examples of content promotion tactics that my company has successfully utilized to amplify our owned media.
LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
Our marketing team utilizes sponsored updates on LinkedIn to promote our gated content. We set a budget for each campaign; target users based on interest, industry, and job title; and deliver a link to a landing page with a relevant piece of gated content.
Our reasoning behind promoting gated content via sponsored updates verses our blog content goes back to the idea of delivering the right content to your audience, through the right medium, at the right time. We’ve found that when our audience is on LinkedIn, it’s the perfect time to serve up a piece of gated content.
For example, when looking at the performance of our sponsored posts, we found that the offers that linked straight to a landing page converted at a 500% higher visitors-to-leads conversion rate than sponsored posts that link to blog content.
Promoted Tweets
We’ve also recently seen success with promoting tweets that have the most engagement. For instance, we promoted this tweet about our “5 Unexpected Content Marketing Trends from CMI’s 2016 Report” blog post after we saw that it was garnering a lot of initial engagement. It generated an additional 111 clicks to the post with only $50 in ad spend.
Promoting tweets is a great way to boost the reach of your most engaging tweets and get them in front of a new audience. To determine whether a tweet is worthy of promotion, we ask ourselves two questions:
- Did it perform well? When a post is performing well organically, it will automatically perform better than your other posts when you sponsor them. Our rule of thumb is to only promote the top 1-3% of tweets that have gotten the most engagement recently.
- Is the content you’re promoting converting well? If we’re considering promoting a tweet, we look at the piece of content it references to determine the conversion rate of that piece. If it didn’t perform well, we try to pick a new tweet that links to a high-performing piece of content or look at how we can optimize the blog post for better conversion before putting dollars behind promoting it on social media.
How does your company leverage earned, owned, and paid media? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
5 Tips for Selling Products on Instagram
Are you wondering how to sell your products on Instagram? Want some tips to get started? To make the most of interactions with customers on Instagram, your images and descriptions need to stand out and purchasing needs to be as easy as possible. In this article you’ll discover five tips for selling your products on […]
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Eddy Cue discusses the motivation behind Apple News and what the future holds
Following his interviews centered around the new Apple TV, Apple’s SVP of software and services Eddy Cue has now sat down with CNN’s Brian Stelter to discuss the News app the company launched alongside iOS 9. In the interview, Cue and Stelter discuss a variety of points surrounding News, including Apple’s main goal with the app, the expansion to additional countries, and revenue sharing.
Cue stated that the main reason Apple created a pre-installed app for reading news is because it’s something “everyone uses everyday.” Cue elaborated that Apple only pre-installs apps that it thinks users want and will use on a daily basis.
“We’ve only created the apps that we think everyone uses every day… We really wanted to create a single app that all customers could go to, to read all their news — no matter what they are interested in, no matter what topics, no matter what publications they want to follow — and get that experience that they’re used to with our products, where it looks beautiful, it’s really easy to read and yet it provides all the content available around the world.”
When asked about revenue sharing between Apple and publishers, Cue explained that publishers can choose to sell their own ads and keep 100 percent of the revenue, or have Apple sell them, in which case Apple will take a 30 percent cut. Cue said Apple benefits from News by “creating a great application on our devices,” implying that the goal is not monetary in Apple’s eyes.
Cue also explained that by launching its own News app, it allows journalists to do what they do best and not have to worry about developing a standalone app. Specifically, Cue noted that News allows small publishers to share their stories with the world.
“I absolutely believe in that. It was one of our main goals when we were building Apple News. We thought of things from, you know, even church newsletters to a stamp club… A lot of those organizations today still print and mail, which is even more expensive.”
Stelter then asked Cue about expanding News to more countries, specifically China. The Apple executive revealed that the company is working on a version of the app that it hopes to launch in China soon, explaining that Apple has a great relationship with China and isn’t facing any hurdles in its expansion.
Cue explained that Apple is not looking to employ journalists at all, but rather build technologies and a platform on which journalists can share their writing.
“It’s not in our plans at all. Again, we try to focus on what we do really well. We build technologies and we know how to do that really well. We think there are great journalists around the world and we want to empower those journalists to get their content right to the customer.”
The video version of the interview can be seen below. Cue ends the interview by stating that Apple appreciates “great journalism more than rumors,” while going on to state that journalism is very important and that Apple wouldn’t “trade it for anything in the world.”
Filed under: iOS Tagged: Apple, apple news, Eddy Cue, news.app
Check out 9to5Mac for more breaking coverage of Apple, iOS, and Eddy Cue.
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Report: Apple testing iPhone 7 models with USB-C, multi-touch 3D Touch, dual cameras, more
The iPhone 6s launched just two months ago, but rumors surrounding its successor are already circulating. Earlier rumors have claimed that the device will feature a waterproof and dustproof design, as well as a new casing material. Now, G For Games reports that Apple is currently in the process of testing five different iPhone 7 models, all with distinct differences.
While the report should be taken with grain of salt, it claims that one model Apple is testing ditching the Lightning connector in favor of a USB-C port. The report also claims Apple is testing various models with wireless charging technology, multi-touch Force Touch, dual cameras, and in-display fingerprint recognition.
Wireless charging has been a feature users have requested often over recent years, but Apple has yet to implement. Our own Ben Lovejoy argued, however, that wireless charging is not on his iPhone 7 wish list due primarily the idea of “charging mats” being too cumbersome. At this point, however, it’s unclear as to how Apple is testing wireless charging.
Presumably multi-touch Force Touch/3D Touch would mean that you could press harder with two fingers to bring up different options than what appears when you press harder with one finger.
In-display fingerprint recognition would presumably allow for Apple to eliminate the home button entirely, something that has been tossed around for a long time now. Apple has been criticized for having too large of top and bottom bezels and removing the home button would allow for the company to finally shrink those.
This report should be taken with a decent amount of skepticism, however. While it’s possible, or even likely, Apple is experimenting with these technologies, it’s hard to say which will actually make it into the final product. Last week, it was reported that the company was looking to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack, while earlier this month it was reported that the iPhone wouldn’t adopt AMOLED displays around 2018.
Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 7, report, rumor
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PSA: Beats Music shuts down today, here’s what changes and how to move to Apple Music
Later today Apple is set to pull the plug on Beats Music and completely stop the service. The reason? After buying the subscription music service in a $3 billion deal that also included Beats headphones and speakers last year, Apple Music has now fully launched and replaces Beats Music. Any remaining subscribers will need to transfer from Beats Music to Apple Music immediately to avoid losing saved music libraries and playlists. The good news is Apple Music now has almost all of Beats Music’s features with only a few exceptions…
Both services costs $9.99/month for access to music catalogs that can be streamed or saved offline for playback, while Apple Music offers a 3-month free trial up front and a $14.99/month family plan for up to six users through Apple’s Family Sharing. Beats Music briefly offered a similar free trial and family package, but only to AT&T subscribers. Apple Music also features a bigger library of content and is available in many more countries, but switchers will likely notice a few tracks from Beats Music not make the jump to Apple Music.
Apple Music recently launched as a public beta for Android 4.3 and later, replacing the discontinued Beats Music app on Google’s mobile platform, and later this month Sonos users will begin testing Apple Music streaming where Beats Music was previously available. While Apple Music is available to Windows users through iTunes on the desktop, there’s no replacement for the discontinued Beats Music app for Windows Phone users. The Beats Music web app (which requires Adobe Flash Player) is also not being replaced, but iTunes on the Mac also includes Apple Music. Apple TV 3 curiously gained a Beats Music app shortly after Apple bought the music service, but the new Apple TV 4 is required to fully access all the features of Apple Music on the big screen.
No matter how you used Beats Music, Apple Music should feel familiar with For You, New, and My Music features plus curated playlists that are very similar on both services. One quirky Beats Music feature called The Sentence which let you create radio stations based on MadLib-style questions does not make it over to Apple Music, however, but Apple Music includes a free Internet radio station called Beats 1 with actual radio DJ hosts.
Apple Music has a rocky reputation and I worried early on about losing Beats Music after the acquisition, but the new service is available to a lot more people and includes a few unique features that other streaming services like Spotify don’t provide.
Finally, if you’ve made it to the last day of Beats Music and want to preserve your library through Apple Music, Apple has detailed a few steps for both iOS and Android users to ensure you don’t lose your music library or playlists. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users must have iOS 8.4 or later (iOS 9.1 is current) and be signed in to Beats Music version 2.3.4. Launching Music on iOS will prompt you to transfer content, and Beats Music credit will become iTunes credit.
It’s far more likely that some Beats Music users on Android have waited until now to transfer as Apple Music only recently came to the platform, and the process is very similar. First install the Apple Music beta for Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or later, then launch Beats Music version 1.2.7, be sure you’re signed in, then await the Getting Started prompt to begin the transfer. Apple notes that group plans through Family Sharing can only be setup after the transfer. Also important to note: Apple Music doesn’t yet work with Android tablets, smartphones only for now.
Now we wait for the lights to go out and watch Beats Music go completely dark…
Filed under:
How-To, Apple Music Tagged: Android, Apple Music, Beats 1, Beats Music, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, WindowsPhone
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Apple Pay support for JCPenny store cards in testing with spring 2016 rollout goal
JCPenney is following the lead set by Kohl’s and testing Apple Pay support for its store credit cards, according to a new report.
JCP shoppers in Texas are being added to a pilot program that allows them to set up their store cards on their mobile devices for use in stores. The program seems to be limited to only one store at the moment, with a full rollout planned for spring 2016.
Customers included in the trial will see the following notice when adding their card to Apple Pay:
JCPenney is running a pilot program available to cardholders residing in Dallas Ft. Worth and shopping at The Village at Fairview store. Cardholders nationwide will be able to add their JCPenney credit cards to their Wallets and pay using Apple Pay in spring 2016.
Apple first debuted support for store credit cards in Apple Pay as part of the iOS 9 software update in September. Only a few days ago, Kohl’s became the first retailer to enable this feature for its cards.
Filed under: Apple Pay Tagged: Apple pay, JcPenney
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AT&T to increase price of grandfathered unlimited plans in February
AT&T subscribers who previously had unlimited data plans back in the iPhone 3G era and have managed to hang onto that plan are in for their first price increase in seven years, a source with knowledge of the matter has informed 9to5Mac.
The price jump won’t be huge—the almost-too-good-to-be-true rate of $30 will increase to just $35—but it does open the door to further tinkering later down the line, which may make some customers a little uneasy. The change will go into effect in February 2016.
As is currently the case, talk and text costs will be separate from the data fee.
T-Mobile recently raised its own unlimited data price along with the announcement of its “Un-carrier X” offer, though that was a much larger jump from $80 to $95. Verizon also updated its own unlimited plan recently with a $20 price hike, making AT&T’s increase the most generous of the bunch.
Filed under: Tech Industry Tagged: AT&T, T-Mobile, unlimited data, Verizon
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Apple’s Tim Cook to receive Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 2015 Ripple of Hope Award
Early next month, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization will present Apple CEO Tim Cook with its 2015 Ripple of Hope Award honoring leaders in commitment to social change. Cook has described RFK as a personal hero on multiple occasions over the years.
The Apple chief is being honored with the award alongside Congressman John Lewis, Evercore co-founder Roger Altman; and UNESCO Ambassador Marianna Vardinoyannis.
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization said the Ripple of Hope Award “lauds leaders of the international business, entertainment, and activist communities who demonstrate commitment to social change and reflect Robert Kennedy’s passion for equality, justice, basic human rights, and his belief that we all must strive to ‘make gentle the life of this world.’
Cook has been increasingly vocal in recent years about his dedication to fighting discrimination and inequality, both in his personal life and at Apple where he’s started several initiatives since taking over as CEO. Earlier this year Cook was honored with the Human Rights Campaign’s National Visibility Award for his efforts.
The Apple CEO has also partnered with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization in the past, including auctioning off sit-down lunch dates with himself and tickets to Apple keynote events. The last auction raised over $200,000 for the charity.
Cook will be presented with the 2015 Ripple of Hope Award during a ceremony in New York on December 8.
Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: RFK, Robert F Kennedy, Tim Cook
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Mini-Reviews: Anker PowerCore+ 10050 / PowerPort 2, Just Mobile AluPlug and Mophie Powerstation 2X / 8X
Several brand-new iPad and iPhone accessories I’ve been testing recently aren’t necessarily worthy of full standalone reviews, but because they come from some of our readers’ and editors’ favorite companies, they’re still worth knowing about. Four of the five are sequels to prior products I’ve covered, while one is totally new — though similar to an earlier design.
Today, I’m taking a quick look at Anker’s PowerCore+ 10050 ($33) and PowerPort 2 ($14), Just Mobile’s AluPlug ($30), and Mophie’s “new” Powerstation 2X ($60) and Powerstation 8X ($150). The names may sound familiar, but each of these power accessories is actually different from what came before, and better…
Anker’s PowerPort 2 Versus Just Mobile’s AluPlug
Even though wall chargers have nearly become commodities, trusting your iPad or iPhone to safely recharge using a no-name alternative or counterfeit Apple charger is a bad idea. Obviously, some companies make better chargers than others, and in rare cases, you’ll get even better results than using Apple’s own solutions. Anker’s PowerPort 2 ($14) and Just Mobile’s AluPlug ($30) are prime examples.
PowerPort 2 packs the power of two Apple iPad 12W USB Power Adapters into a single black or white power cube that’s only a little larger than one Apple charger: roughly 2.25″ by 2.1″ by 1.1″. It’s matte- finished plastic on the end with two USB ports, and glossy everywhere else, including the side with folding wall blades. When plugged in, a blue light glows to show it has adequate wall power, changing to green to indicate fast charging. During testing, I had no issue charging one or two Apple devices at full speeds, ranging from the iPad Air 1 and iPad Air 2 to the iPad Pro, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6s Plus. The performance was great, and for $5 less than an Apple single-port wall adapter, it’s certainly a great deal.
| Manufacturer: Anker |
Price: $14 |
Compatibility: All iPads, iPhones, USB iPods, Apple Watch |
|---|
I’ve liked Just Mobile’s accessories for years, and was one of the earliest fans of the Highway series of car chargers when they debuted — the company took a commodity car charger and used aluminum to make it match the interiors of nicer cars. AluPlug is basically an upgraded Highway Max car charger in wall adapter form: twin 2.4-Amp USB ports sit underneath a small green power light, surrounded by a silver, diamond-cut aluminum barrel and a black plastic base. Even if the internals are basically the same as Anker’s PowerPort 2, AluPlug’s circular shape is very unique by wall charger standards. During my testing, it worked without problems to charge the same iPads and iPhones mentioned above, and looked nice doing so.
The question is really whether you care how your wall adapter looks enough to spend $30 on it. Just Mobile’s publicity shots show AluPlug on a wall next to an iMac — a cool visual — but most wall adapters will be closer to ankle level and out of sight. I really like AluPlug’s design, but I’m not sure that I’d pay a premium for cosmetics unless I had a very visible location where USB power was necessary, and the silver and black color combination looked right. If that describes a location in your home or office, don’t hesitate to consider it; otherwise, you’ll be fine with a less expensive option such as PowerPort 2.
| Manufacturer: Just Mobile |
Price: $30 |
Compatibility: All iPads, iPhones, USB iPods, Apple Watch |
|---|
Anker’s PowerCore+ 10050 Versus Mophie’s New Powerstation 2X and Powerstation 8X
When it comes to batteries and other power accessories, Anker so dominates the “performance for the dollar” equation that no one — even a well-established rival such as Mophie — can touch Anker’s combination of power and pricing. Earlier this month, I reviewed Anker’s PowerCore+ 20100, which currently sells for only $60 and can fully recharge an iPad Pro or 12″ MacBook with energy to spare. It turns out that Anker also has a version called PowerCore+ 10050 ($33), which has a single USB port and half the capacity, but the same circular 10-light remaining power indicator and anodized aluminum body, bundled with a mesh carrying case and micro-USB charging cable. Only 3.8″ long by 2.4″ by 0.9″, it looks just like the larger version, only with roughly half the length. Anker claims that it’s the smallest 10,000mAh battery on the market, and that’s probably right.
The good news with PowerCore+ 10050 is that it has enough battery capacity to refuel any iPhone (including the iPhone 6/6s Plus) twice, and almost any iPad once. In my test with the huge, power-hungry iPad Pro, I was able to go from dead to 70% recharged before PowerCore 10050 expired. On the other hand, this PowerCore+ ran slower than expected, taking six hours for that 70% charge. Anker claims that it’s 2.4-Amp capable, and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for non-Apple device charging, but the speeds I saw with the iPad Pro suggest it’s best used with iPhones and smaller iPads that tap out at 1-Amp or 2.1-Amp speeds. For these models, the capacity and $33 asking price will be highly compelling.
| Manufacturer: Anker |
Price: $33 |
Compatibility: All iPads, iPhones, USB iPods, Apple Watch |
|---|
Mophie’s “new” Powerstation 2X ($60) and Powerstation 8X ($150) are just two of the company’s lineup of five just-released sequels to earlier, same-named Powerstations — a point that will cause some confusion if you try to search for them. Completely redesigned to emphasize thinness, the all-aluminum Powerstation 2X has a footprint that’s closer to an iPhone or iPod touch than ever before, while the aluminum and plastic Powerstation 8X looks like a giant-sized version of the first-generation iPhone. Each has a 4-LED power indicator and button on a long edge, with a micro-USB recharging port and full-sized USB output port on a short edge; 8X also has a second full-sized USB port with green markings within its black plastic end cap, indicating support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 with non-Apple devices. Both Powerstations promise at least 2.4A output, while recharging at under 2A.
The new Powerstations’ names (1X, 2X, 3X, 5X, and 8X) are supposed to differentiate them from each other and roughly indicate how much “extra battery” they will give to connected devices, but since the sizes and power needs of devices vary so much these days, the “X” ratings aren’t really useful. The math is also a little fuzzy; each X is supposed to be 2,000mAh of battery capacity, such that Mophie’s 2X battery has 4,000mAh of power, but the 8X has a 15,000mAh battery, so it’s more like 7.5X.
Notably, the 8X version ships with Bluetooth, so if you download Mophie’s free Power app, you can get more detailed information on the battery’s current power level, and receive battery status notifications. There’s also a fringe benefit: if you have an Apple Watch, you can receive a “fully charged” notification on your wrist when your iPhone’s done recharging. These features strike me as nice, but non-essential, and not things I would use with frequency. Additionally, the Power app is only formatted for the iPhone, and I couldn’t it to install on the iPad Pro — something Mophie will certainly correct soon.
In my testing, Powerstation 2X was able to deliver a 111% recharge to the iPhone 6s Plus, taking it from dead to 100%, then an additional 11% after a partial discharge. That’s not quite “2x,” but on par with other 4,000mAh external batteries I’ve tested. By comparison, Powerstation 8X was able to deliver a 166% recharge to an iPad Air 2 using the same dead-to-full, then partial discharge test. That’s good, though not close to the performance of much less expensive Anker ultra-high-capacity batteries such as Astro E7. Apart from the value of Mophie’s brand name, the reason to prefer a Powerstation instead is thinness: unlike the Anker models, even the Powerstation 8X is only 0.48″ thick — about the thickness of an iPhone 6/6s Plus in a case — and 2X is closer to a bare iPhone 6/6s. As of press time, both of the new Powerstations are on a temporary sale through Mophie, making them more price competitive, so if you’re interested in grabbing either one of them, act quickly.
| Manufacturer: Mophie |
Price: $60, $150 |
Compatibility: All iPads, iPhones, USB iPods, Apple Watch |
|---|
More From This Author
Check out more of my reviews, How-To guides and editorials for 9to5Mac here! I’ve published a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users, as well as a great holiday gift guide for iPhone users, a detailed holiday gift guide for Mac users, and a separate holiday gift guide for Apple photographers.
Filed under: iOS Devices, Reviews Tagged: Accessories, Anker, Batteries, chargers, iPad, iPhone, Just Mobile, Mophie
For more news on iOS Devices, iPhone, and iPad continue reading at 9to5Mac.
What do you think? Discuss “Mini-Reviews: Anker PowerCore+ 10050 / PowerPort 2, Just Mobile AluPlug and Mophie Powerstation 2X / 8X” with our community.
Cyber Monday: The best deals on Apple accessories, software, & more
While Black Friday often gets the most promotion, the deals aren’t over. Some of the best deals aren’t available until today, Cyber Monday, as many retailers offer the same or even deeper discounts in order to help move as much stock as possible ahead of the Christmas holidays.
Below we’ve done the dirty work for you, compiling the best of the best deals on accessories, software, and more for all of your iPhone, iPad, Macs, and other Apple products.
Accessories & Gear:
Pad & Quill EXCLUSIVE sitewide stacking discount of 20% (using code: Mac95 at checkout drops discount from 15% to 20%) Some Standouts:
- Luxury Travel Pouch for Apple Watch
- Roll Up Kit for Apple Watch
- The Timber Catchall for Apple Watch
- Premium Leather Cases for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
- Premium Leather iPad Cases by Pad & Quill. Handcrafted Wood Frame and Elastic Enclosure – Fits iPad 2, 3, 4, iPad Mini & iPad Air.
- Premium Leather MacBook Cases by Pad & Quill – Handcrafted Wood Frame & Elastic Enclosure.
- Classic Leather Journal iPhone & iPad Cases. Handcrafted Design and Elastic Enclosure
- Premium Leather iPhone & iPad Cases with Handcrafted Wood Frames
- Moleskine Style Leather iPhone and iPad Cases.
- Lots more
Otterbox – Up to 40% off + free shipping (U.S. Only)
Incase up to 50% off Mac, iPhone, and iPad accessories with code “CM15”
iHome offers 30% off + free shipping with code “cyber”
12South has 50% off 4 big products including their popular HiRise, BookArc, and Hoverbar products for Mac and iPad.
***Note you can grab a BookBook case at Amazon for $20 Prime shipped which is 67% off.
Lifeproof – Up to 40% off + free shipping (U.S. Only)
The Logic Pros: Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals – MIDI keyboards, Lightning/USB mics, iOS synths, plug-ins, more
Casetify – 30% off sitewide + free shipping with code 9TO5MAC30
Zagg – Buy one get one free for Invisible Shield products for Black Friday, 50% off site-wide for Cyber Monday
Nomad Black Friday Sale: Apple Watch Stand $40 (Reg. $60), Lightning cable carabiner $15 (Reg. $30)
Griffin – Save 30% with code CYBERMONDAY
Anker iPad Accessories: Bluetooth Folio Keyboards for iPad Air 2, mini 4, more from $20 Prime shipped
Anker iPhone 6/s/Plus Accessories: Cases or Tempered Glass Screen Protectors from $2 Prime shipped (Reg. up to $18)
Nodus – 25% off Nodus Collection cases with promo codes Black25 and Cyber25 for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Software:
Macphun offers Black Friday savings up to 85% off
Parallels Black Friday Bundle — Buy or upgrade to Parallels 11 for Mac this weekend and get premium Mac apps free including Evernote, 1Password, Camtasia, Pocket, PDFPen, SnagIt and more.
More Mac Bundles with 50 apps over 90% off
VMware Fusion Pro – $119 40% off ,VMware Fusion 8 – $55.99 30% off
Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac – $100, ($50 off), $10 off subscriptions (also at Amazon)
Pixelmator for Mac and iPhone – $1.99, 50 percent off
Fantastical for iPhone or iPad – $2.99, 40% off and $4.99, 50% off
The Best Black Friday Games/Apps Deals: 2Do, MacID, Pixelmator, Infinity Blade, Kingdom Rush, Parallels, many more
Apple products & more:
Need a Mac, iOS device, or iTunes gift card?
Get the best deals on Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and other Apple products courtesy of our friends at 9to5Toys.
And head over to 9to5Toys for all the best Cyber Monday deals on everything from gadgets to fashion and more.
Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Accessories, Apple, code, Coupon, Cyber Monday, Deals, discounts, Incase, iPad, iPhone, Mac, OtterBox, promo
Check out 9to5Mac for more breaking coverage of AAPL Company, Apple, and iPhone.
What do you think? Discuss “Cyber Monday: The best deals on Apple accessories, software, & more” with our community.
Apple Music streaming is coming to Sonos speakers on December 15th
Sonos users rejoice: Apple Music support now has a date, December 15th. Sonos support for Apple Music fulfills a promise made by Apple in June to bring the subscription service to the connected speakers by the end of the year. Opening the Apple Music catalog for subscribers and free trial members makes brings a massive collection of content to Sonos speakers.
The Sonos speakers already supported a huge library of streaming music services including Beats Music and Spotify as well as DRM-free local music on iPhones and Macs, but Apple Music has been unsupported. Trying to stream or playback a song from the subscription music service serves up a DRM error message, requiring line-in connections to work which eliminates wireless and multi-room playback. Starting with a public beta in a couple weeks, Sonos users will be able to stream anything from the Apple Music collection to single or multiple connected speakers simultaneously.
Sonos support is also notable because of brings Apple Music closer to feature parity with Beats Music, which it is based on and replaces. Apple already delivered on its promise to bring Apple Music to Android, albeit in beta, as a fall release.
Both moves show Apple is dedicated to bring Apple Music to as many users as possible, although it has no plans to support Windows Phone like Beats Music did (for marketshare reasons). Apple Music is also available on the fourth-gen Apple TV with Siri support in the works on the new set-top box and subscribers can download tracks locally to Apple Watch for wireless playback without iPhones.
Sonos recently released Trueplay, a feature for fine-tuning Sonos wireless speakers for their surroundings to offer the best sound for the room. Trueplay works with both PLAY:5 speakers as well as all PLAY:1 and PLAY:3 speakers.
Sonos customers interested in trying Apple Music on December 15th ahead of its general launch in 2016 can sign up here to participate. The release is timely as Beats Music shuts down today.
Filed under: Apple Music, Apps Tagged: Apple Music, Sonos
For more news on Apps, Apple Music, and Apple Music continue reading at 9to5Mac.
What do you think? Discuss “Apple Music streaming is coming to Sonos speakers on December 15th” with our community.
Why You Should Invest In Inbound Marketing Before CRM Implementation
Since the beginning of time, humanity has sought to answer unanswerable questions, like which came first, the chicken or the egg? Recently, I’ve come across a question with increasing frequency, that may not be as significant, but is probably even more important if you’re looking to embark upon a journey of accelerated sales growth.
What should you focus on first, building an effective inbound marketing/lead generation process or implementing a CRM to manage your sales and customer acquisition process? While both are important, the question is should you focus on one before the other?
To be clear, both are very important to making growth predictable, sustainable and scalable. If you have the resources and bandwidth you should be pursuing and enhancing both of them simultaneously. However, if you must choose between them, the decision you make will have a significant impact on your growth outlook.
Before answering the question, let’s take a look at the fundamental purpose of each initiative.
The Purpose of CRM
There are several advantages of an effective CRM system with the primary purposes being:
- Building sales efficiency
- Providing management insight into the status and progress of the overall sales effort
- Ensuring compliance with the sales process
- Providing clear reporting
- Creating greater predictability throughout the entire sales process
The Purpose of an Inbound Marketing Program
Here too, there are lots of reasons you’d want to embark on an inbound marketing effort, with the primary purposes being:
- Generating greater awareness and engagement with your desired markets
- Standing out from your competition by creating and reinforcing relevant thought leadership
- Increasing lead velocity and generating more sales qualified opportunities for the organization
To reiterate, all of these results are very important, but I think it’s pretty clear which initiative should be focused on first. That is Inbound Marketing.
3 Reasons Why You Should Focus on Inbound Efforts First
1) CRM Doesn’t Fix Bad Processes, But Inbound Can
An effective CRM system provides tremendous value in increasing the efficiency of a good process. However, it does nothing to address an average or poor process.
For more than 20 years I’ve been working with companies looking to improve their results through CRM utilization. All too frequently significant investments are made in software, time is spent training on the system and absolutely nothing changes. The initial reaction is to blame it on bad CRM, when the reality is that it’s bad process that is the real culprit. Designing a CRM system effectively requires that you have a clear and effective demand generation process that can be mapped to the CRM.
While working on the CRM does little to address bad sales process, the process of implementing an inbound marketing approach does a tremendous amount to improve your sales process (and thus your CRM efforts).
Inbound marketing requires that you start at the top of the funnel and work your way through to the bottom. It makes you view demand and revenue generation from a holistic viewpoint, to understand your market better and to align your sales efforts to how your market behaves today. All of these things drive greater revenue opportunities and create the path to gain the very efficiencies that CRMs promise to create.
2) Effective Inbound Methodology Creates Better CRM Application
I deal with a lot of companies that have been using CRM for years. It is a rare event for me to come across someone who has either designed or implemented their CRM effectively. The data is, to put it bluntly, 90% crap.
A tremendous amount of the value you get from using a CRM comes from the ability to slice and dice the data to segment effectively and increase personalization. However, if you haven’t done the basic work of defining your buyer personas, designing the message to enable you to personalize and to determine how you are going to effectively nurture, you won’t have the clarity to use your CRM effectively.
In my experience, effective CRM reinforces an effective inbound marketing and sales approach, it does not create one. I’ve lost count of the number of times a client has had to substantially change their CRM as a result of the creation of an effective inbound marketing strategy.
3) You Cannot Have Predictable Growth Without Predictable Lead Generation
If I were to summarize the two most valuable benefits of a CRM it would be predictability and efficiency. As I’ve shared, inbound marketing creates the environment for an efficient process, but what about creating predictability?
Simply put, you cannot have predictable sales results or predictable growth if you do not first have predictable lead generation. While creating an effective lead generation strategy certainly involves more than just inbound marketing, inbound is a crucial component.
Inbound marketing enables you to build a true funnel that allows you to build a predictable pipeline for growth. Consider the following:
- The Content Marketing Institute reports that 80% of decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus in an advertisement (and by extension a sales call).
- Inbound leads cost 60% less than outbound leads. (source: State of Inbound Marketing Report)
- Companies that excel at lead nurturing (a core part of the inbound methodology) generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower costs (source: Forrester Research).
- Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (source: The Annuitas Group)
- SEO driven leads have a have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% closing rate. (source: Search Engine World)
The natural focus of building engagement that is created by fully adopting an inbound marketing approach builds a more efficient and effective sales process and make CRM adoption a much easier, more profitable effort.
Additionally, a major benefit of inbound marketing is that it creates revenue. No matter how you slice it, CRM is a cost (a valuable one, but a cost nonetheless). Building an effective revenue generation process creates the environment that allows efficiency and predictability to be sustainable.
Investing the time, money and energy into inbound marketing first, puts you in a stronger position to both implement an effective CRM initiative and to accelerate growth.
Top Limitations Of Using Spreadsheets For Resource Planning
Top Limitations Of Using Spreadsheets For Resource Planning
By Patricia Goh
It is important to change up the obsolete to a current solution if managers are serious about avoiding project failure at all cost. In resource planning, many have used spreadsheets to manage resources and plan projects, but is that the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to […]
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