David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, was famous for spending an inordinate amount of time on headlines.
Back then, social media didn’t exist. If it did, Ogilvy would probably give equal time to creating the perfect complementary image.
The Buffer.com blog has some great tips for creating social media graphics. The article is meant for non-designers, but if you’re new to social media marketing, it’s worth the read.
There are always exceptions to every rule, but there are very few exceptions to THESE rules. Great article by Ben Brychta over at Inkbot Design.
The tech giants, who are increasingly competing for customers’ time, eyeballs and money, are close to an agreement to bring an Amazon video app to Apple’s Apple TV set-top box, according to people familiar with the two companies.
Ahhhh the famous “people familiar with” source. Those people seem to know everything. Accurate or not, this would be a huge win for Apple. HUGE. Perhaps even enough to move the Apple TV out of the “hobby” category.
Here’s hoping.
Apple’s AirPods are an inarguable smash hit. I’ve not heard of a single person who owns a pair that says they don’t like them for any reason. In fact, they all rave about them.
If only you could by a pair.
Here’s a great video tutorial on how to adjust the spacing between objects in Adobe InDesign. Here’s a hint: SPACE.
While the meatball is nostalgic, I’m partial to the worm. Although I suppose that if you cleaned up the meatball, it could be really striking. I guess that’s why both versions have a large fan base.
Google has come up with an algorithm that reduces JPGs by 35%, or maintains existing file sizes but dramatically improves quality. The new JPG is 100% compatible with existing programs and web browsers on all platforms. It’s 100% open-source and compatible with the current JPG standard.
And not a single person will ever use it.
Ok, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. I’m sure some people at Google will use it. And probably a few geeks who like to tinker, but don’t rely on producing visual graphics for income.
Just because it’s free, or offers the end-user a better user experience, doesn’t mean it’ll actually be popular. Unless Google can convince EVERY LAST IMAGE EDITOR ON THE PLANET to use it by DEFAULT, it’s not going to matter. Google Maps is better than Apple’s iOS Maps. Wanna guess which map app is more popular on the iPhone despite that? Convenience trumps everything.
One has to wonder what the point is. Coming from Google, the angle they take is faster website loading.
I’m sorry, but having a 100kb JPG be reduced by 35% means absolutely nothing. The site is not going to load faster, because a 100kb JPG loads instantly to begin with. Ridding a site of Javascript for tracking and ad-serving is the only thing that’s going to speed up a website (something we know Google is never going to do). Heck, I get emails with 1MB animated GIF images in them that load virtually instantly.
But if Google can convince Adobe to use the algorithm as the default in Photoshop when saving JPGs, I’ll be happy to re-save a ton of old JPGs that are still 30MB in size due to their massive size and PPI settings.
If I had to place a bet on a major change in Apple’s approach to podcasting, I’d place it on adding money to the equation.
Jason Snell over at SixColors covers a lot of Podcasting history in this article, and I think it’s all pretty much spot-on.
Apple has a virtual monopoly when it comes to Podcasting—pretty much owning the distribution of them with iTunes, and with a huge portion of the overall audience using an iPhone and Podcast app to listen to them. The only thing left for Apple to do in this arena is figure out a way to make more money.
Swatch Group AG said it’s developing an alternative to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems for smartwatches as Switzerland’s largest maker of timepieces vies with Silicon Valley for control of consumers’ wrists.
Mark your calendars folks. By “sometime around the end of 2018,” a company that doesn’t know dick about making an OS platform that is secure, feature-packed, or useful—and is famous for the watches seen above—is going to put-out a great smartwatch to compete with Apple Watch. Pffftt!
The road is littered with the steaming, smelly carcasses of companies that thought they could even produce a smartwatch, let alone one that competes with Apple. Even the mighty Samsung couldn’t do it, and stuck with Android… which despite popular belief is a virtual non-starter as far as competition with Apple is concerned.
Swatch says their building an alternative to iOS & Android. I simply say: Muahahahahaaaa! If I had to guess, I would say that Swatch will eventually release a really nice looking Pebble watch in 2019, with the promise of making it better… only to kill it off 6 months later after a complete lack of sales.
Everyone expects to see an image header at the top of an email or website. You can spark interest by breaking out of the boxy design. Take a look at these non-rectangular headers for some inspiration.