Editor’s note: The webinar has ended and all links go to the product page.
As many of you know, I am very very picky about mobile sitebuilders. I get pitches to write about them all the time on mobienthusiast.mobi, and I have so far turned every one of them down because they are clunky and don’t work or make you use a subdomain or make you pay for the service every month without removing the company’s branding.
Yesterday I attended a webinar [edit: the webinar is over and now links to a product page with a how-to video from the webinar] hosted by my friends and mentors Jason Fladlien and Wilson Mattos. I know them personally, I have been coached by both of them and have paid a lot of money in travel fees and conference fees to see them speak because they are that good. Those of you who know me, know that I rarely attend conferences because I have small children at home and the investment had better be worth it for me to leave town.
The first half of the webinar is all about mobile and marketing and stats. The host, Jason Fladlien, gives slide after slide of marketing tips and techniques for why your clients should buy a true mobile site and not just one that has been modified for mobile with a WordPress plugin. I plan to use these strategies personally, as they make total sense to me.
The second part shows a mobile sitebuilder that has an emulator inside the WordPress dashboard, allows you to create icons on the fly without much editing, and has an interface that looks like the home page of an iPhone.
There will be a second webinar today at 12 noon Pacific Daylight time, and if you are interested in working with local businesses (or online businesses) without mobile sites, there are a lot of strategies here that you won’t want to miss. I would urge you to register for it even if it is the middle of the night in your part of the world, because they will email you a link to the replay.
I don’t remember everything I saw, but here are some of the things Jason touched on in the webinar and will likely cover again in the webinar today:
- Mobile marketing
- How to find clients
- How to build a mobile site (he does it live)
- Importance of keeping a site lightweight to load quickly and keep data costs low
- Why not to use video and how to do it if you insist on using it anyway
- How to make a header for a mobile site quickly and easily
- Where to find icons
- Q&A
I am sure I am forgetting something, but the overwhelming feeling I got looking at this mobile sitebuilder is that it has what I need and what I have been wanting personally for a long time. Let’s face it, it is very difficult work to make a mobile site work on a phone, and when you add tablets like the iPad into the mix, it’s very easy to throw your hands up in frustration and say, “ok, it’s just going to look like this.” Well, as a professional web designer, you can’t afford to do that when your reputation is on the line.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for the product because I believe in the team, their customer support, and their refund policy. I only post products with affiliate links here if I have personally tested them or if I know the developer and have experienced their customer support and refund policy to be valid.
If you see this post after the webinar, contact me and let me know.
Last week I had an interesting exchange on Twitter with an Android developer. He wanted Android screen shots to show how his new product would look on an HTC Sensation.
Apparently this is easier said than done. I piped in and asked if you could just press a few buttons and have a screen shot like an iPhone. I guess not. Edit: Yes, you can push two buttons for a screen shot. Skip to the bottom if you want to find out how.
There is, however, an app available for the job. It’s Screenshot ER, and it will set you back £1.15 ($2.88 USD). I have not personally tried it since I don’t have an Android phone, but the phone has to be rooted to use it. That means it has to have an administrative account on the phone that has special administrative privileges.
For more information on how to root an Android phone, here’s a link to a list of videos on the subject on YouTube.
Thank you to Mauricio Reyes and Paul Roberts via his post on AndroidCommunity.com (not a mobile link) for the information on rooted phones.
Photo credit: HTC.com
Remember, if you want to talk to me on Twitter, I’m @mobileHolly. See you there.
Update: According to Douglas McDonald of Mobile @ Creston plc & Tullo Marshall Warren @DMcDonald01, there is an easier solution: “If you press home and back power at the same time it takes a screenshot and sticks it in screencapture in the gallery.”
I just knew it didn’t have to be that complicated, so thank for that info.
Disney to add three Android apps to offerings
We’ve been following Disney on the mobile web here on mobiEnthusiast for a number of years, and now they’re adding something new: Android Apps.
A quick search of Android Market reveals there are already approximately 282 apps related to Disney, but are not part of the newer offerings expected directly from Disney in the near future.
Mashable.com has a video posted today of an interview with Bart Decrem, the SVP and general manager of Disney with the rest of the story.
Mobile takes center stage at the 2010 South By Southwest Festival Interactive Track, which runs March 12 through March 16 at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, USA. The following is a partial list of seminars and training on the schedule.
What’s Hot in Mobile at SXSW
- Maps 2010: How iPad Impacts the LBS Market
- The UX of Mobile
- Touch + The Holy Grail of Delight
- Organizational Pitfalls on the Path to Multichannel Experience
- Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?
- Mobile – the Great Channel Equalizer
- iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators
- The Real Mobile Scoop – Agency, Manufacturer, and Carrier
- Web Evolution: The Rise of Mobile, APIs and Runtimes
- Is App-vertising the Answer
- Augmenting Your Brain With Android
- Google Hackathon: Mobile Maps, App Engine, Chrome Extensions
- What If Your Phone Had Five Senses?
- Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?
- Building Mobile Games on the Windows Phone Platform
- Mobile Computing and it’s Contribution to Technology’s Exponential Growth
- The Final (Mobile) Frontier: Battery Life in Africa
- How We Built the SXSW Mobile App
- Convergence 2010: Ten Cool Things That Could Happen This Year
- Mobile Development with the Flash Platform: iPhone and More
- Augmented Reality – Gimmicky Trend or Market-Ready Technology?
- Pass it Back! Kid Apps on Grown-up Devices
- Location Beyond iPhone: Locating 100+M Phones
- Location-Based Marketing and Advertising: Targeting the Mobile Consumer
- Mobile Content is Social
- Mobile Advertising in 2010: How to Pay the Bills
- QR Codes and 2D Barcodes: Bridging Physical & Digital
- Mobile Commerce
- Mapping and Geolocation: Turnkey Approaches You Need to Know
The full SXSW Mobile schedule (may not be viewable on some phones) includes information on presenters and a summary of what each session will cover.
While you’re there, check out the updated SXSW.mobi site for mobile access to the South by Southwest Festival.
The new Android SDK (computer link) is now available for download in Windows, Mac OS X (intel) and Linux (i386) formats. The new SDK replaces version 1.6.
According to the Android site (computer link):
Android 2.0 is a major platform release deployable to Android-powered handsets starting in November 2009. The release includes new features for users and developers, as well as changes in the Android framework API.
For developers, the Android 2.0 platform is available as a downloadable component for the Android SDK. The downloadable platform includes a fully compliant Android library and system image, as well as a set of emulator skins, sample applications, and more. The downloadable platform is fully compliant and includes no external libraries.
The site also includes videos, a reference section, a developer guide, blog, and community section.
© 2009 mobiEnthusiast.mobi Mobile Blog
