The yyc iPhone Developer Camp
October 10, 2009
This past weekend the Armadillo Team descended on the University of Calgary for the first “yyc iPhone Developer Camp”:http://calgary.iphonedevcamps.org/. Put on by Michael Sikorsky and his company “Robots & Pencils”:http://hq.robotsandpencils.com/, the iPhone Dev Camp was a 2 day _crash_ summit for the local Calgary iPhone development community. With everyone sharing ideas, information and talent.
Based on the unconference “Bar Camp”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp format that was made popular in San Fransisco, the camp was a loose introduction to the growing iPhone Development community in Calgary. During the weekend established companies from within the city revealed some of their tips and tricks in developing their apps through a series of morning segments. From presentations on viral marketing, “Cocos2D development”:http://unobservedmusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/iphone-dev-camp-keynote.html, and even some intresting rough app demos; the community really came together to showcase and connect with one another. While the afternoons were dedicated to a less formal format, where attendees broke into two groups. The first group organized a series of round tables to discuss various elements of the iPhone development process, while the second group focused on the development of a quick and dirty app for a local organization. (Which or may not be used in the near future)
I could go on and on and on about what was learned this weekend, but essentially it was an incredibly informative weekend.
More importantly, it was one which introduced us to the great development community in this city. A big thank you goes out to Michael and all the companies that shared their expertise and stories throughout the weekend. If you have a moment, please check out some of the companies that were featured this weekend (and even give them a bit of support, buy downloading their apps).
“Tap Forms Inc.”:http://www.tapforms.com/
“Broken Kings Inc.”:http://brokenkings.com/
“We’re Not Rocket Scientists (WRNS)”:http://www.wnrs.ca/
“Pho3nix Media Inc.”:http://ph03nixnewmedia.com/
“Happy App Co.”:http://www.happyappco.com/
“iKingdom Corp.”:http://ikingdomcorp.com/
… And if you’re wondering why a web design studio would be at a iPhone Development Camp, just stay tuned …
Google Street View: What Does it Mean For Your Business?
October 8, 2009
Google Street View “rolled out in Canada yesterday morning”:http://www.techvibes.com/blog/google-street-view-now-available-in-canada. While many people are finding it to be one of the Internet’s greatest time occupiers, it does have important ramifications for your business.
*Google Street View* is essentially a street level enhancement to Google’s powerful online mapping system – Google Maps. Users can now zoom in on any address in a major metropolitan Canadian city to see a panoramic view of the area. Below are some examples of Google Street View in action at some of Calgary’s most famous intersections.
But as a small business how is this new feature important to you? Right now it seems like a nice novelty, but what will it mean for potential customers?
First and foremost, if you happen to run a storefront business; a repair shop, a flower shop or a clothing store, when potential customers use Google Maps to find your location they will now see a street level view of your storefront. Unfortunately, for a business standpoint there is no control over the view that is available for customers to look at. Any business with information updated on Google will be tied to this viewpoint, whether it’s a flattering photo or not.
Second, if you are a Realtor or a business tied directly to the Housing Market, Google street view will be an important tool for your business. Not only will users be able to see an honest street level view of your property, but they will be able to explore the surrounding neighbourhood and the local amenities. Again, depending on the state of the property and the time the Google Car visited your neighbourhood, this might not be the most flattering photo.
So What Should You Do?
It would be almost impossible to fight the impact Google Street View will have on your business. Google’s current stanglehold on user search and business information is impossible to ignore. So our advice would be to *embrace the service*.
Google allows you to embed the streetview application directly into any web page, so leverage this feature. For Realtors this means embedding street views of you properties directly in to your showcase page. For businesses with store fronts, this means embdedding the application on your contact us page and replacing that outdated Google map.
Google Street View might seem gimiky at first, but like all of Google’s previous technological breakthroughs the business ramifications will become apparently very shortly. So rather than fight it, embrace it.
Categories: Calgary Social Media,Fresh Ideas,Social Media,Web Design Trends
Did You Know 4.0?
September 22, 2009
It’s a pretty tired cliché, but sometimes pictures (and beautiful fonts with great statistics) speak louder than words.
If you haven’t seen it yet, this is the fourth in a series of viral videos detailing the new Media Climate. The latest rendition promotes the “Economist’s Media Convergence forum”:http://mediaconvergence.economist.com/ in New York and without question it is a pretty important view for any sized business. (A special thanks goes to “Andrew McIntyre”:http://twitter.com/andrewmcintyre/statuses/4172911339 and “Roger Kondrat”:http://twitter.com/Roger/status/4153967351 for the link)
Categories: Social Media,Web Design Trends
The yycPhotobook Launches
September 9, 2009
It is with big grins that we are proud and extremely pleased to announce the first copies of the “yycPhotobook”:http://www.yycphotobook.com have been published.
As mentioned in a “previous article”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/yycphotobookcom, Armadillo has been honored to team up with Duncan Kinney (of “yycBlogs”:http://www.yycblogs.com) to design and construct the yycPhotobook. And now that the book is completed, we are even more excited for the upcoming launch party on Sept 18th.
In regards to the actual design process for the book, the yycPhotobook team started by selecting a diverse collection of unique and engaging photos from a group of Calgary photographers. Next, we brainstormed a layout and order that would maximize the impact of each photo. We then assembled the basic skeleton of the book in InDesign using the easy to use templates supplied by”Blurb.com”:http://www.blurb.com. Keeping with the theme of the original web site; The yycPhotobook design utilizes the same crisp aesthetics associated with the minimalist web site. Each photograph in the book is given it’s own page with the author’s accompanying avatar and a short 140 character description of the work. In combination, this ultimately created a unique 40-page book that encompasses Calgary’s distinctive identity.
As mentioned, the yycPhotobook launch party is on *Sept. 18 at Venturion* (214 11th Ave. SE). There will be beer and wine for sale at reasonable prices and some light refreshments. You’ll be able to meet the contributing photographers and get a sneak peek of the book. The book will also be made available to the public through yycPhotobook.com and Blurb.com, on the day of the party.
Categories: Armadillo Gives Back,Armadillo Studios News,Calgary Client Releases,Calgary Web Design,Client Releases,Corporate News,Fresh Ideas
SXSW10: Leave Your Job. Start An Agency.
August 17, 2009
A couple of months ago, Alex Lemanski of “Bitfyre fame”:http://www.bitfyre.net/ approached some of our mutal friends from previous “SXSW Adventures”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/?c=sxswi-09 about trying our hand at a panel for “SXSW 2010”:http://www.sxsw.com.
As a collective we’ve already built the popular how-to guide “SXSWisEASY”://www.sxswiseasy.com , so it would only make sense to throw our collective hats into the SXSW panellist ring. So with that I’m happy to present to you our potential panel “Leave Your Job. Start An Agency”:http://ow.ly/kiAK.
The concept behind our panel is simple. We want to provide an outsiders perspective on the difficulties of starting your own studio. We’ll address things like how to do transition from your solo Apartment/PJ set-up into a full on office? How to deal with arguing co-owners? How to find clients across different area codes? Pretty much every topic that someone would need to know if they were contemplating starting up their own business.
To paraphrase Joe, the idea of the panel is to get the real dirt on non-existent inter-office scandals and what to do when your partner doesn’t agree with you – there’s sure to be some heat in this panel. What else could you expect from three Americans, one Canuck and a Texan.
So this is where we need your help, if you’ve got a second and do plan on attending SXSW’10 in Austin, please log on to the panel picker and give our panel “a big thumbs-up”:http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3303. Voting closes on Sept 4th, so be quick.