Steve Jobs died today when he was 56 years old. Raneri Web Design remembers and simply wants to say “thank you” to a visonary man that changed the way the World looks at computers.
Turin (Italy), 30th September 2011 – Raneri Web Design is pleased to announce the launch of Aroundly, the new social sharing app available from today for Apple iPhone. Aroundly works like a photographic Wikipedia, where everyone is user and contributor of a unique and continuous stream of pictures coming from every part of the World.
The concept is based on simplicity and immediacy: users only have to use Aroundly instead of the default Camera app; every photo is instantly geolocalized and uploaded on aroundly.com, where anyone can follow the live flow. All of this occurs without any need of signup: both uploaders and viewers can use Aroundly freely and anonymously.
If you ever asked to yourself if it’s worth to go to that party tonight, or if you’re just curious about what is happening on the 5th avenue in New York City right now, you have just to check on www.aroundly.com if someone is using Aroundly there. If so, you’ll get a near-live photo of the situation.
Aroundly also represents the world photo album of the last month. Photos are stored for 30 days: users can connect to aroundly.com and center the map on an exact date/time/location in the past to get the corresponding images. If you are looking for a solution to get all the pictures that people are taking with their iPhones at your friend’s wedding, Aroundly is the answer.
Services on aroundly.com are free for everyone, without limitations. The Aroundly app is now available for the download from the App Store and it will be free for a limited period of time.
App Store link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aroundly/id464912746
Aroundly website:
http://www.aroundly.com/
It’s an experience that is common to many freelance web designers out there; you join an online platform, find an interesting (and lucrative) project that you think fits perfectly to your expertise and background, you submit a bid on this project and then find yourself battling it out with other freelancers. In this scenario it’s easy to get lost amongst the crowd and one thing that all freelancers share in common, is the need to rise above the competition and showcase their skills and expertise to potential clients effectively.
Therefore, more often than not, first impressions will count for everything when a client is making a choice between many web designers who on paper all look like the best bet for their project. So how can you secure the project?
Showing a genuine interest in the project;
A lot of the time, many freelancers who are members of online platforms will get an automatic email whenever a project is published that falls into their area of expertise. Due to the amount of notifications these freelancers usually send off a standard, typical response to these projects signaling their interest. However, the customer can usually notice straight away if the offer that has been submitted for their project is a standard offer, or if the web designer has actually taken some extra care and interest into the specific details of the project. What you can do to signal your genuine and unique interest is;
. Detail your expertise in relation to specific aspects of the project. For example if the project requires the construction of WordPress templates then describe your specialised knowledge in this area.
. Suggest concrete ideas for a solution to the customer’s problem.
. Contact the customer for more details of the project, so that you can submit a better offer. This is sure to signal your passion for the job.
Talk to the client as a human being;
No matter the size of the web design project, what will really boost your chances of landing the job is if you are able to bring the personal touch to your project offer. If you treat the customer as an equal and strive to bring a more human touch of your services then this will enhance your chances. For instance, if the details of the project are insufficient or unrealistic (say perhaps the proposed deadline is not long enough), if you communicate this to the client and work with them to find a compromise then you can be sure to leave a very good impression on the client. This will mark out your honesty and professionalism right from the start and shows that you can be a valuable and knowledgeable business partner. Moreover, it may sound simple but address the customer by their name (or at least address your offer to the contact person given).
This sounds way better than “Dear Sir/Madam”.
Showcase your skills!
Sometimes actions speak louder than words, and it could be that from a wide selection of candidates, your portfolio of past work may swing the balance in your favour.
. Provide examples of previous web designs that you have created, this will show your diversity as a web designer and display your skills to the customer in the fastest sense possible.
. If you have worked on a number of different projects including the creation of Ecommerce websites, then showing these examples will show the diversity of your talents.
. If you have not worked on a large number of projects, then why not include certificates and qualifications as well? This will demonstrate your skilled expertise in web design and should put any fears as to your ability at ease.
. Take the initiative and supply a small portfolio of previous templates and themes that you have designed in the past together with your project offer.
What is important to remember that with any project offer, you will not only need to convince the client of your professionalism and skills, but you will also need to give an impression to the client that you are down to earth and very approachable. You must convince the client that you are happy to work with them at every step along the way, and that you’ll always be willing to provide your aid and assistance to their web design project.
This is crucial as not every expert is happy to work with the customer in a collaborative effort and will rather not take the customer’s objections seriously because they feel their more qualified opinion is correct. Thus, by making the extra effort to contact the client directly on a human level, you can show that you are ready to combine your expertise and enthusiasm with the customer’s dreams and desires.
Robert from twago
Thanks to a brilliant designer at Dell, a new laptop I bought has the Hard drive LED behind the LCD panel, so it’s impossible for the user to see the disk activity. I tried a couple of software utilities to provide a replacement to this lack; the best I found is a freeware. read full post »
Breaking news – Comex has finally released the new version of Jailbreakme, the online tool capable to jailbreak 4.3.3 iOS devices, including the iPad 2. First reaction and positive reports are appearing on Twitter. Happy jailbreaking!
Everyone is talking about Apple. One of the best way to visualize the history of a tech company is through its website, and how it has changed in the years. Here we present you a series of screenshot of the home page of Apple.com: one for each year, since 1997 to 2010. Have a nice trip!
TIP: We didn’t add any “special effect” to the screenshot links, so you can open them in full screen. If you want to open them in a new window (and you’re reading this web page from a computer) just click on thumbnails with your mouse wheel to open the full size image in a new tab. read full post »
This feature of Windows 7 (its correct name is “Aero Peek“) is often hated by users that want to be free moving the mouse anywhere in the screen, without that anything happens.
The new “show desktop” corner in the right is a really good idea and I use it everyday, but I also prefer to click on it – when I want to minimize everything: it’s really rare that I want only to take a little… preview of what is going on my desktop.
Disabling only the “mouse over” version is really simple: just click with the right mouse button on the Windows Taskbar and choose “properties”, then uncheck the option “Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop“. That’s all! Now you can click on the show desktop button, but hovering it will do nothing.
The Internet’s got a new talent: that damn hole in the Gulf of Mexico that is spilling roughly 200.000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean. For the moment, every attempt from BP to stop it has failed; in compensation, they had no problems with the installation of a camera that broadcast from deep underwater a live video feed of the oil spill.
(Sorry, the original video feed is only in Windows Media format, if you have problems I suggest to search on a live video site like Ustream, to find an alternative source)
It could sounds ironic, but the main feature I miss from Windows Seven – when I’m using a PC with Windows XP – it’s that little button on the bottom-right corner of the screen. Nina, an MBA accounting student I know, talks about how useful this button used to
be. It has the same functionality of the old “Show desktop” button on XP, but its position allows me to “launch” the mouse in that direction, without any precision, and click it to get all windows hidden.
Of course, someone released a tiny (and free) utility to backport this feature to 9 years ago, on Windows XP 
It doesn’t need to be installed, just download and start it (and maybe put it into the “startup” section of your Start Menu)!
I was looking for a complete solution to keep the office PC with my laptop in sync: SugarSync does more: it offers a free 2.5Gb storage space to synchronize an unlimited number of folders between two computers; in addiction, they gives you a mobile application – available for Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry – to access your file also in mobility.
You’ve only to select the directories you want to keep in sync (tipically the “documents” folder, and maybe your music or pictures archive), the SugarSync client will run in background, automatically monitoring every change. If the other computer is switched off, it will be synchronized the next time you will power it up.
It is a direct competitor of the famous (and good) Dropbox (2Gb for free), but it offers several addictional features: Dropbox syncronizes a single folder and it gives a mobile app only for iPhone, even if the free accounts are elegible to be linked to an unlimited number of computers, while SugarSync free supports only two (plus a phone). SugarSync is available for Windows and Mac OS X (Dropbox has also a Linux client).
You can expand the space limitations of your free account referring your friends: SugarSync offers you 250Mb of addictional space for every new user you refer (and your friend will get the same, starting with 2.75 Gb of free storage space!); if someone you referred will upgrade to a paid plan – starting from $4.99 per month for 30Gb – you’ll get an addictional 5Gb for free.
