Take The Initiative and Create Your Own Projects

During my last job with a large corporation, people started to get laid off. Many fellow creatives came to me, as they had no idea what they would do if they were let go. I had come to that small city from New York and my experience was varied and impressive to those who started their careers with this company. Their parents had hoped for their own children to work there and eventually retire in the same homey place. They were anchored in this town that held no other industries. Like layoffs in a town that has a steel mill, there weren’t many options to those looking for work.

“You’re creative,” I would tell people before my turn came in the next to last round of layoffs (which is some comfort). “You can do so many things that are creative. If you get pushed out the door, make your own projects!” Then advise them where to go and spend the rest of the day creating a book, or painting a series for a gallery show, or create postcards, greeting cards, dolls and websites. This was usually followed by the persons to whom I was speaking to, to ask about something they obviously wanted to explore; leading to a discussion, usually joined by others as well, on how to achieve it. The dividing line is how badly does one want it?

Take The Initiative!

Tailor (A) gives creative (B) a snappy new “power suit”, SO irresistible that the client (C) hugs the suit (D) causing it to hit paddle (E), smashing expensive vase (G) and wasting a perfectly goof head of cabbage (I). Further destruction reigns havoc (K – P), dousing all competitors with a toxic chemical (Q). Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

I’m a big believer in self-propelled initiatives. It’s how I make a living. Writing for Smashing Magazine is an initiative. Everything is done before Smashing ever sees it. Authors have to come up with the idea, research it for presentation, get the approval and then write it and submit it. It’s initiative. As with what you may perceive as easy to pitch an article, most initiatives are simple!

All of my career I’ve had people come to me to relay that they have written a book and need a cover or images for the inside so they can send it to a publisher. I tell them they don’t need all that. Just send in the manuscript with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (many publishers have digital submissions on their sites) and the publisher will choose cover designers and illustrators themselves.

Some people smile at the realization that their dreams were an easy step closer. Some didn’t believe me and insisted I design something for them (and draw, because I’m an “artsy-type!”). I look over the pages and tell them it’s an idea that shouldn’t be “set aside lightly”. They smile and then I tell them it should be “thrown with great force” (with apologies to Dorothy Parker). Some people want it to be done for them. Maybe it’s the prompting of a contest or a “might-as-well-take-it” project.

Would you rather be working on a low-paying project that is screwing you up at every turn or invest in yourself with the time put towards your dream project? It’s not hard coming up with an idea and creating the images, code or what-have-you. The difficult part is making yourself do it and then selling it and that’s where most people fail.

One of my recent favorite self-initiative stories was about an injured creative with time on his hands and a need for income. Dave is a designer at the Iconfactory and responsible for the ultimate Twitter icon Ollie the Twitterrific bird; he had broke his foot while playing soccer over the Fourth of July. That meant that the poor guy was relegated to staying off his feet at home. Rather than wallow in self-pity, he decided to use the opportunity to keep himself from going completely Rear Window and offer up his design skills to the large Web community — and successfully so!

Self-initiative is not easy for most people. Working for someone else provides a regular paycheck, security, after a fashion, and someone telling you what to do. No self-motivational projects needed. As one person commented on a past article on crowdsourcing,

“I recently participated in the LG “Design the Future” contest (yeah, I didn’t win)… but rarely do I get the chance to design a cell phone like product… it was a great exercise in creativity and it really let me flex my muscle… and they had some substantial cash prices (first prize was $20,000)… I feel like competitions like that are great for the industry. The rules were pretty relaxed and it really let people go hog wild and show off what they can do. Too often you’re forced to roll with the clients vision. It’s great to have a contest that let’s you be you.”

As I was arguing the pros and cons of crowdsourcing in that article, I just had to reply for his edification:

“I understand your point, but let me play devil’s advocate and explore another option. So you submitted something you really enjoyed designing and it stretched your creativity. You loved your final submission. You didn’t win and the client, I assume, owns it anyway. What if you had designed it but not submitted it and then sought out companies that might purchase the rights to the design? You would have taken a cue to create your own initiative and owned the product rights.”

Was the prize worth giving away all rights to the winner? What would the client have paid a design firm or freelancer to do the work? I’m guessing that the prize cost was considerably less than the one that would have run the company. So, who was the real winner? Which avenue held a better chance for him? The odds of him winning the contest and giving up the idea anyway without winning, or the odds of him being able to sell the design on the open market, or  maybe not, but owning it to try again? I can’t say.

Persistence in selling the idea and protecting it can be daunting. Even though, sometimes even an e-mail comes back right away that says, “I love it!”… and a check eventually arrives. (Note: you shouldn’t participate in such speculative design work as a professional in the first place and here is why — Smashing Editorial)

What Will Get You Started?

A tidal wave of ideas or bills (A) will motivate another creative nearby to foolishly open an umbrella (E) in a lame attempt to hold back the flood, causing what looks like a giant earring (H) to fall and pull the hammer (J) so it strikes a piece of metal (K), waking up the baby (L) who must be rocked to sleep (N) by a trained and poorly-paid dog (M), causing the attached backscratcher (O) to tear at your flesh until you decide it’s better to get off your rear and do something. Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

Your idea. Your dream. No one will do it for you. Even if you have to work at something non-creative — use the money to live, but make your dream the priority. Crappy job gets in the way of your dream? Find another crappy job! They’re everywhere and except for the slaughterhouse idea, they won’t drain your creativity. Have the idea? Now set your plan. Just like your previous boss who had always made projects go around and around, it’s finally time to make your own plan, knowing it will work better, and make it happen!

First, research who your customer is. Using Web sources or going to stores are the best way to find out some helpful examples of consumer habits (yes, marketing people never leave the office, they rely too much on figures supplied to them). See what people are buying and talk to them. I used to go to stores that carried products made by the company for which I worked for, and watched what people bought or didn’t and asked them why.

I would smile as I approached them, excuse myself and explain what I was working on and gathered their opinions. This is probably why my products sometimes sold very well. Know your consumer base!

Also, figure out costs and how you will cover them. You may need a loan or investors. What website and functionality will you need? Packaging, having stock, shipping, advertising, taxes? Is your dream project for you to start a business or do you want someone else to produce it? If you are producing it yourself, you can get a business loan, but you are about to take many, many risks. Get legal and financial advice next. It’s well worth the money and will give you the final tally of whether or not this will be your dream or nightmare.

If you are creating something to pitch to a company for their purchase or licensing a property (certain photos for calendars and cards, for instance), there are a similar but different set of rules.

Start with the idea and marketing, create a style guide and/or presentation. A friend of mine wanted to publish a graphic novel for a pitch for a property she was trying to sell but couldn’t afford upfront fees for an artist and writer and printer, so I told her to use a WordPress blog to post her promotional material that she already had and that would give her a great presentation — the easy way.

Research which company you think would want to take on the project. Again, go online or to a store and look around. Want to really impress potential clients? Ask the store’s permission to set everything up; take videos of shoppers and their answers. What better way to produce proof of a need and then give clients the means to fulfill it!? Let your imagination run wild! As with the man who was so excited by the contest he entered, stretch yourself creatively.

Found the perfect prospect? Do your research and find the people you need to reach. There are many business networking sites. Search the company and find people and their titles. Get addresses and phone numbers. Call the receptionist and ask her/him who is the head of marketing or if they have an R & D contact person. If they don’t know, ask to speak to the secretary of the VP of marketing. Maybe she/he can get you closer. Also, use your network. Do any of your contacts know someone you are trying to reach?

Sounds difficult? It isn’t really; just keep in mind that it takes a lot of persistence, patience, as well as a good sense of humor. Once you lost one of those, you won’t make it.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement Is Standard

While feeding yourself (A), the spoon pulls the string (B), flipping a piece of drilled iron into the head of a parrot (E), who is knocked unconscious and knocks it’s beak into a bowl (G) which spills parrot food into a bucket (H) that sets of fireworks (K) inside your house with a razor sharp sickle (L) attached to it, cutting the string (M) and forcing you to remember the paperwork to enforce your rights by smacking you in the face with a contract repeatedly! Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

It’s standard to either have your own Non-Disclosure Agreement or pick up a copy of Tad Crawford’s book on contracts and forms. Bigger companies will insist on using their own. Bigger corporations, to their own detriment, usually have no access point for outside ideas. They are afraid your idea may be something they are working on and they will be sued down the line. Middle-sized companies will just tell you they happen to be working on the same idea. Document your contacts and submissions well.

I was recently told over a dozen product designs would not be used. I later heard the products were available in every catalog world-wide. Did they think my price would go up if I found out how well the work did? You bet it will! Keep your expectations high (expect the middle to low high) when negotiating. A recent question came in from an artist in Mexico who ran across a sleazy representative in the United States who was basically ripping her off for one of her licensed characters. She had jumped at the chance because it was her first time working in a licensing arrangement. I hope she followed my advice.

As with any business transaction… think! Anyone who rushes your decision is up to something. Do your research and see what you find.

Bless The Web And All Who Surf It!

Extended and dangerous hook (A) catches old fashion sign (B), causing electrical shorts that start a fire and the boot to swing back, kicking the football (C) over the goal post (D) and into a colander (E) which tips the watering can (G) to soak the creative’s back, pants and shoes, which will lead to misunderstandings and new nicknames. The string (I) pulls open the cage (J) allowing the bird (K) to go to eat the worm (M), as the bird had been starved in retaliation for all the Twitter fails, causing the shade to be pulled down (N), which reminds the creative to mail that proposal in his pocket. Using theiWeb only takes half the steps. Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

The Web holds a billion of possibilities. As I mentioned about my friend who built a blog, rather then going through the costs of print, you can hardly lose with a great idea and the ability to bring it to life on the Web. With e-commerce made so easy, how can you not have a site that sells something? At least most of the people I know have a Cafepress or Zazzle “shop”.

When I first started with web design, back in the days when processors ran on mud and sticks… and fire, which was new, I put up sites for my infamous chili recipe, one for each of my kids, a site for toy collectors, and it went on. Why? The Web was young and there were probably only 73 sites live and forty of them were mine!

Use your down time. Partner with friends and split the rewards. Ever hear of a group of social outcasts who got together and created something called “The Onion?” No? I haven’t either, but I do hear good things and that they crawled their way up to be, I believe, the number one humor site in the world. It must have started with an idea and someone’s dream.

(ik) (vf)

© Speider Schneider for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: creative, initiative, projects, spec

Billboard Web Design: How to Win Your Audience’s Attention

Let’s say you’re driving down the freeway at 65mph and you see the roadside plastered with advertising posters on both sides. Some small, some large, all meant in some measure to cause you to remember a brand or identity, to keep that company name in your mind. The more saturated the roadside becomes with advertisements, the more the brand has to be distinctively creative, unique and memorable.

Generally, the eye-catching ads are mostly the ones with witty taglines that are easy and fun to remember. As much as the colors of the images and fonts being used are important to make it easy on the eyes, the idea actually has to be unique and simple enough to be separated from other commercials.

Photo credit: Randy Harris

The same principle applies to any website. Though a user won’t necessarily be passing by your site at 65 mph, there is a certain bounce rate — visitors who leave your site shortly after entering it. For many websites, these rates are much too high. This poses a very similar challenge to those who design billboards. You have a very short amount of time to capture your audience’s attention and to keep it for long. With that in mind, here are some principles for developing billboard-style Web designs.

Creative and Unique

An important piece to the billboard website puzzle is creative and unique design. This can be intertwined within the other principles, and when done effectively, can be the sole reason for viewers to dig deeper into your site.

Hey Indy
Creative and fun, heyindy.com breaks the mold of an ordinary, plain and boring website. Complete with customized illustrations, drawings and playful typography, each page engages users, making them feel comfortable on the site. Notice how well the illustration on the top fits with the tagline of the site. Hey Indy creates websites, illustrations and animations and uses the “mixtape” metaphor to attract client’s attention. The site is not obtrusive, but inviting instead. A very personal, attractive design.

Dropr
This online service uses a nice typographic poster with playful typography on the front page to explain what it does. The design is attractive and inviting, although a plain simple text message could have worked just as well to deliver the message to the visitors. The interesting part are the animated clouds on the left side with colorful water drops. Very nice use of metaphor contained in the title of the service. An original and unique design.

TVLCORPs
Interested yet? Though the tagline shown on the web design below does not really say what this company does, the layout is creative and compelling; the strong, vivid contrast is more than enough to turn some heads. Notice how “UX/UI” stands out on the site, focusing the visitor’s attention on the ‘services’ section of the page.

{ ro:newmedia }
Sometimes it’s a good idea to risk an unusual design approach — be it exaggerated typography, striking color combinations or unusual design layouts. The latter is the case in point for ro:newmedia’s website. The layout is very unusual and original, and therefore memorable. Colorful large spinning circles look like an overlay of the site layout and appear vividly against the dark background. A downside: the font size of the text on the page could be a bit larger.

Pixelmator
Much different than the standard, pasted screenshot, Pixelmator works the sleek, elegant interface of their application directly into the design of their page.

Relogik
What makes this particular site effective is its ability to draw the eye to the name of the product or service they are showcasing. In this case, it works well to give the company name an afterthought as well as making the product more prominent.

Made My Day
One more test to run is to assume how much impact a particular site has on a reader, if they were to take a quick glance and look away. Ask yourself: If you were to carry out your day from that point, what were you to still remember about that particular site? The large orange circle elegantly integrated into this composition does an excellent job of leaving a style for returning visitors to remember.

Compelling Headlines

A good design only goes as far as the content it contains. For this reason, it’s vital to go beyond average with your copy text. If you’ve seen a billboard advertisement or two, you may remember the tag lines featured on them. Short and to the point, they’re meant to get you to remember a certain brand.

Many large corporations don’t even use ad copy, but rely solely on their logo and identity to remain effective. One has even gone as far as making their billboard a working sundial in this respect. Though we should all aspire to having a brand of our own this influential, it’s recommended that you stick to clear and powerful copy text along with your design to help capture your readers. Here are some examples of compelling headlines:

Ryan & Sofia
Ryan and Sofia combine hand-drawn design elements with a compelling headline, all supported by a very informal, emotional language and choice of layout. The message is strong and clear, and therefore very appealing.

Comwerks Interactive
This design agency uses a clear and simple language to communicate the purpose of the website. Cute illustrations make a website look less formal and much more engaging. The purpose is clear and the client list immediately proves that the design agency indeed builds cool stuff. A downside: the text on the images in the slideshow would benefit from not being embedded in the images.

Camera+
Clear, contrasting colors only add to the effectiveness of the headline given on this website. In a clear and elegant manner, a reader is quickly able to glance at this website and know its purpose.

Just Dot
Sticking to the billboard clarity, Just Dot provides a clever design and tagline to attract readers. Along with a creative chalkboard theme, this site features neat and clean navigation to help guide readers through the site.

Jeroen Homan
In clear and impacting typography, this site screams out its purpose distinctly. In today’s fast-lane crowd of web-surfers, such clear and impacting titles are a must-have for a captivating and inviting website. This of course, is the case as long as the amount of content allows for this.

DBA Products
An important part of capturing your reader’s attention is in engaging in a conversation. When one reads, “Think before you write” a first reaction is to wonder about what is actually meant by that phrase. Firstly, attention is captured. Secondly, a reader eye is lead to the bottom left corner where they can view a video to learn more.

Clever and Poignant

Not every billboard is meant to be humorous, however, almost all strive in some way to get a point across in a not-so-ordinary fashion. Consider the last few advertisements you’ve seen. If they were selling toothpaste, did the ad simply state “Buy this Toothpaste” or was there something creative and direct to get you to remember that particular brand?

In Web design, the same principle can be applied. With the hundreds, if not thousands, of websites we’re exposed to overall, trends can be seen which are all too often followed. But because the Web is ever changing, simply following trends can lead to a site becoming outdated the moment it’s published.

How can this be avoided? Once again, we can look back at billboard advertisements. What makes many of them effective is their ability to deliver something creative, or other than what the average person was expecting to see.

Tea Round
Complete with high-quality images, Tea Round’s website captures attention, while incorporating a creative tagline.

Spring: Supporting Biodiversity
This particular tagline is effective because it engages you with a question. Notice how the question is not “Do you support biodiversity?” but rather “What will you do to support biodiversity?” which places the reader in a position to feel as though they need to take action!

Tapbots
Another element to creating memorable billboard-style web designs, is the product or service itself. Short and snappy names are just as, if not more important, than the tagline. “Calcbot” is much easier to say and much more memorable than something like “Calculator Application for iPhone.”

Pointy
Featuring a vibrant color scheme and typestyle, Pointy successfully merges creative typography with a compelling and challenging headline. Along with the headline is a clear next action for the reader to take: “Let’s talk”.

Powerfully Branded

Though it’s already been touched a bit thus far, branding is another important piece to powerful Web design which deserves further attention. As with the toothpaste example, a billboard’s purpose may in the end be to generate sales, but just as important is the building of the brand the company is advertising. After all, you can get dozens of different brands of toothpaste, just as there are a multitude of of websites out there, so how is one among the crowd to be remembered? Building a brand through a Web design is the very mark or entity visitors remember you by.

Nike®
Showing the importance of subtle repetition, Nike® combines a creative display of their shoes, while giving viewers multiple views of their logo.

McCafé®
With every cup featuring the McDonald’s® and McCafé® logo, a viewer can be grabbed by the quality of the product, while remembering the brand correlating to it.

Coca-Cola®
The Coca-Cola&reg website is a billboard in action. Complete with the clean logo and bottle, with the clear and simple tagline, the brand is very easy to remember.

What Does a Brand Have to do with a Website Anyway?

Even if the website you’re developing doesn’t have the sole purpose of making money, a brand is still very important. Brands are essential for goading visitors to come back time and time again. Consider some of the recent advertisements you’ve seen. If there is a company you know and love, would you say you’re much more apt to spend time looking at that advertisement, as oppose to the dozens of others you’ve never seen before, or the ones that don’t interest you? The same applies for websites.

Eye-catching, yet tactful

There are countless sites on the web that will undoubtedly catch your attention, but only for the worse. Poor, outdated design, or a heap of flashing animated gifs will only increase your bounce-rate. Appealing sites achieve a balance between capturing reader’s attention and providing an adequate amount of useful information. Something to keep in mind: the design is a key piece of your website, but if it distracts away from the aimed content, it no longer serves its purpose!

Megumi
With jaw-dropping elegance and simplicity, this web design effectively brands their name, gives a brief tour, all while keeping the design clean and clear.

MailChimp
MailChimp’s website design is bold and clean, and it sticks to a consistent color scheme. Bright, complimenting colors are used while making the main content readable.

Row to the Pole
Still retaining a subdued and clean typestyle and color scheme, this site is still able to feature a commanding headline. Communication, clarity, and balanced design are all utilized exceptionally on this layout.

Clean, Simple and Straight to the point

Of course, one of the options is also as simple as simplicity. Not to say we cannot be creative in our delivery, but a saturation of text and images, especially on a home page, can motivate our viewers to click that back button! Here we’ll take a look at some good billboard-style websites that have captured the essence of simplicity to attract readers:

Less
Less has a clean and well-designed interface. Complete with a clever tagline, this application shows you a screenshot of exactly what they’re offering to you. It doesn’t get much clearer than this.

Courier Mac App
Complete with a well crafted icon, Courier clearly depicts their application with cool, soft colors, yet elegantly displaying the showcased application. The catchy subtitle also assists with remembering the name. Something to take note of as well is the fact that the “download” and “purchase” buttons are clearly displayed at the top of the page.

We Are Omazing
With a simplistic approach, this site integrates the imagery and style into the tagline. Branding is in effect as a memorable name is complimented with readable design.

Clarity and Contrast

Pivotal to any design, good contrast is a must. While subtle typefaces and graphics have their place in design, strong contrast is important to quickly direct a reader’s attention or get them to remember something particular. If viewers have to hunt around for what you do or what you offer – more than likely they will not stick around for long. Make it easy for your readers to know what you’re about from the very beginning.

Charles Elena
Don’t be afraid to go big with your text. This site sports an effectively large Sans-Serif font to grab the attention of its readers and to get them to remember what they do. The design isn’t necessarily strong and vivid, but the message is communicated very clearly.

Live Books
There are many different features listed on Live Book’s website, but one thing that’s executed exceptionally well is its clarity. There’s no mystery here, you know exactly what they offer.

Conclusion

In an age where advertisements saturate our market, it becomes all the more visible of the need for creative and effective design. As we’ve explored here, good design goes beyond making things look nice, or following trends, but rather effectively capturing the audience of those whom we wish to view the site. In the end, what action viewers do, or do not take, can come down to the finest details of the decisions made by the Web developer.

Feel free to share your opinions or experiences in the comment section below!

Bonus Billboard Template Download

In addition to the concepts explored here, you can download your free billboard website/image template for displaying your billboard-style design. Place any 440px wide image into the code provided, or modify it yourself for a great way to display your images. See some samples below:

Download the template for free

• download the PSD template (20 Mb, .zip)
• download HTML with CSS (+ a Web ready version of the billboard image)

(ik) (vf)

© Thomas McGee for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: advertisement, audience, billboard, commercial, showcases, tagline

Top 10 CSS3 buttons tutorials

Super Awesome Buttons with CSS3 and RGBA

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Your own Google buttons using CSS3

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CSS3 Gradient Buttons

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Kick-Ass CSS3 Button

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Pure CSS3 icons

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Extremely fancy CSS3 buttons

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BonBon: Sweet CSS3 buttons

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Realistic Looking CSS3 Buttons

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CSS3 “Aqua” buttons with no images

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Flexible CSS3 toggle buttons

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Building beautiful buttons with css gradients

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Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!

Top 10 CSS3 buttons tutorials

Photoshop ideas for tablets, smartphones (images)

Adobe is working on extending its Photoshop franchise to smartphones, iPads, and other new-era mobile computing devices. Here’s a look at what it envisions.

NASA images capture icy nucleus of distant comet

In a precision, high-speed flyby, a recycled NASA spacecraft takes spectacular images of a peanut-shaped comet’s frozen nucleus and multiple jets of icy debris.

Digitizing Audio, Scores, and Iconographic Materials

——————————————————– Digitizing of Audio, Scores, and Iconographic Materials ——————————————————– The LIM has worked with major music archives and institutions in order to preserve cultural heritage and music-related materials. The LIM can provide comprehensive support and experience for treating magnetic tape, vinyl records, and other audio storage media, either analog or digital. For images and iconographic materials, such as scores, photos, stage maps, and so on, the LIM can provide quality scans and image post-processing. Digitized materials can be organized and classified into multimedia databases. Finally, the LIM can also design and implement the hardware and software solutions for multimedia archives. Among others, the Archivio Storico Ricordi, the Bolshoj Theater, the Discoteca di Stato, broadcasters including Italy’s RAI and Switzerland’s RSI, and the Teatro alla Scala have all relied on the cooperation of the LIM for digitization needs.

Author: LimUnimi
Duration: 138
Published: 2010-09-15 13:10:27
Digitizing Audio, Scores, and Iconographic Materials

Apple seeds iOS 4.1 SDK as app downloads top 6.5 billion

Hot on the heels of last week’s Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) media event touting the Sept. 8 release of the iOS 4.1 software update, the computing giant seeded the iOS SDK 4.1 Gold Master to registered developers, promising the introduction of new services as well as a host of bug fixes. iOS 4.1 is highlighted by the launch of Apple’s long-awaited Game Center service, enabling developers to more effectively incorporate multiplayer gaming tools into their applications–available as both a set of APIs and as a stand-alone iPhone application, Game Center also features social media tools, making it easier for consumers to discover new titles as well as live opponents. According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, iOS devices now outsell mobile gaming units from traditional videogame giants like Sony and Nintendo.

Also new in iOS 4.1: High Dynamic Range photo capabilities, which Jobs said can combine several different photos, taken quickly together, to produce clearer images. He said the platform also will enable users to upload HD video over WiFi, rather than requiring users to plug their device into a computer. iOS 4.1 additionally fixes bugs impacting the iPhone 4′s proximity sensor, Bluetooth capabilities and the performance of the iPhone 3G–users have complained that iOS 4 slowed iPhone 3G devices. Jobs said Apple will unveil iOS 4.2 in November, touting iPad additions like multitasking and folders.

Jobs said Apple has now shipped 120 million iOS devices and activates 230,000 new devices every day, adding the latter figure doesn’t include upgrades–a not-so-subtle jab at rival Google, which recently said it activates 200,000 new Android devices a day. (“The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services,” Google told Fortune in response to Jobs’ comment.) Apple’s App Store now offers consumers their choice of more than 250,000 applications–downloads from the digital storefront total 6.5 billion.

For more on the iOS 4.1 SDK:
- check out the iOS Dev Center

Related articles:
Apple issues iOS 4.1 beta update to developers
Apple adds iOS 4 application section to App Store
Apple issues iOS 4 update to iPhone 3GS and iPod touch
Apple now accepting iOS 4 app submissions

About

What we provide

BoonJack Media is a full service website hosting provider which specializes in Hi-Def or HD video and multimedia platforms.

There are many companies today which provide website hosting. Most offer some level of video and multimedia support too, however none can or will support HD video or multimedia playback adequately.

What makes BoonJack Media unique is our focus on delivering a fast and satisfactory user experience regardless of the content. HD quality video and multimedia is extremely popular for many practical business uses and we’ve built our servers around this demand. We provide full website services with all of HD video multimedia packages, and at an affordable price to meet any budget.

Most website hosting providers primary focus is marketing their website hosting services, while supporting video and multimedia is merely lip service. Most hosting simply fails to meet the online demands of today’s memory hungry apps, not to mention HD video or multimedia. Basically resulting in lost opportunities with higher bounce rates for their clients.

Why?

The short answer, there is a strong need for a HD video and multimedia system which does not require expensive streaming to deliver a fast viewing experience. We also wanted to provide a complete, easy to use all-in-one website platform, including hosting services under one administration and management GUI (graphical user interface).

Today’s HD video and multimedia service providers has a huge gap in the overall quality, and speed of delivery today among companies offering this type of service. There are a lot of traditional video hosting companies and services out there, but when you take a look at the HD video hosting options, the choices become quite narrowed and display performance is poor.

Most of the “Better” providers offering HD and video hosting fall flat when it comes to speed of delivery, or require a streaming server. The streaming server hosting costs, compared to standard video hosting, can quickly become inconceivable for the majority of businesses with digital content.

These video hosting companies don’t offer website hosting services either, so it’s not uncommon for companies to have multiple logins, and accounts for their website services. This can be hard to manage, a nightmare juggling all the different account login names and passwords. For someone to put together tracking and analysis, or just to make a simple change on one account might affect your other services too. Managing your website definitely doesn’t have to be this difficult, we kept it simple by providing one simple administration interface, with easy one-click access to all services.

Whats under the hood?

Server Technology: We have built and developed a server architecture from scratch specifically for HD multimedia and video delivery with a focus on a high speed viewing experience for the majority of viewers, browsers, PC types, and ISP bandwidth variations from broadband to mobile. We’ve dubbed the servers as a “Cloud X Hosting” build, with varying versions and configurations which can be integrated into any existing system from Windows to Mac and various Unix/Linux systems. A wide variety of major libraries and coding are supported and pre-configured with dependencies already resolved.

High Speed Delivery: We run wide open and have the pedal to the metal 24/7. We don’t throttle bandwidth or allocate memory per account, all of our servers and accounts serve content on a first come first server basis, and burst unlimited memory on demand.

All Content is served upfront with high RPM solid state hard drives running 1TB per server with dual-raid with daily dual backups on and off site. Our servers are configured per account with 256MB for PHP apps, 1GB file management transfer as standard. Our database architecture is configured for large file handling, MySQL and PostGresSQL are fully supported and we run the latest version of PHPMyAdmin configured with all options.

The result is a very fast content delivery server that can easily handle large HD video and multimedia files without the need for streaming. If video or media streaming is required, we have pre-built PHP scripts available for free which can be easily implemented into the display system.

No Streaming Required: We also wanted to support media streaming, but without using RTMP. We felt PHP 5 was refined and powerful enough to support streaming. It’s more compatible, less restrictive, and is more cost effective compared to RTMP streaming. Hard and Soft costs of HD (or standard) video management on medium to large platforms can be trimmed by 10X and content delivery performance boosts of 15-20% without bandwidth or memory increases.

If video or media streaming is required for playback, we have pre-built PHP scripts available for free which can be easily implemented into the display system.

If RTMP Streaming is something you need or require, no problem. All of our video multimedia website hosting and server packages can easily integrate with any of the major RTMP systems, like: Wowza, Red 5, Flash Streaming Server, Sorenson, Akamai, Mediacore, and many other popular streaming servers.

No CDN Required: Our system doesn’t require or need a CDN for insuring fast content delivery across geography, an added cost savings benefit we pass on to you. Content delivery networks are great if you need it, most HD or standard video systems recommend or include CDN services for free. Which is usually because their service isn’t strong enough alone to delivery a decent across the board geographic viewing experience.

If you would need or require a CDN service, it’s no problem. All of our video multimedia website hosting and server packages can easily integrate with any CDN, like: SimpleCDN, Amazon Cloudfront, Limelight, Sorenson, and many other popular content delivery networks.

Encoding Included: All our packages included video and media encoding directly from your server account, so there is no need for a separate encoding service. We use FFMPEG, Mencoder, Xvid, x264 and can encode and deliver video in any major format for PC and mobile playback including: AVI, FLV, MP4, 3GP, OGG, F4V, MOV, VP8, and more.

For audio encoding we use FAAC and LAME, and support all major audio codecs including: MP3, WAV, MP4, and many more. MP3 Id3 and exif meta tags are also included and supported for audio and video.

If there’s is a certain rare or exclusive video or audio codec you need no problem, we can provide a player or containers to support it, or simply add the format engines and libraries for you.

Full Website Platform: Full website services with a complete Administration GUI system, very large list of features and options are included in all of the packages we offer. This doesn’t mean that you would need to drop you current website host to purchase one of our multimedia packages. The full website service platform is simply there as an option, like gravy on your mashed potatoes.

Our multimedia packaging and pricing covers all levels and needs for any business looking to deliver fast, high quality HD video and multimedia, and can be simply integrated into your current website hosting system.

You can use the full website services platform to manage all of your websites or not, the choice is yours. If you can’t find a package you like or want to custom build your own, no problem. We offer a “Custom Package Builder” you can utilize to roll your own multimedia package for as little as $4 a month.

High Performance For All: All of our multimedia packages and any “Custom Package Builds” deliver the same high speed HD video and multimedia content performance, regardless of the package level or price. Most HD or standard video companies limit or restrict the speed or delivery performance based upon the level or price of the package you purchase.

We don’t, in fact the only difference between all of our packages and pricing is the amount of storage and bandwidth needed, they all have and include the same features and options too.

For instance our “Marketing Expert” package priced at $9 per month with 1 GB of storage and bandwidth delivers the same high speed HD video and multimedia performance that our top level package does, known appropriately as “The Bigtime” package.

Flexible Monthly Service: Our packages and pricing are simply month to month, with no contract commitment or requirement. You can cancel at anytime, or upgrade, downgrade at any time easily through your administration GUI, known as the Partner Portal. Automated billing is handled through the portal too, with your choice of PayPal or Authorize.Net which accept all major credit or bank debit cards.

White Labeled: We understand the need for businesses to privately utilize services online, and we’ve went to great lengths to ensure complete anonymity for our clients. Competition is fierce, every little edge matters today, co-branding with a service provider negates any competitive advantage and drastically inhibits growth in

sales of your customer base or offerings.

All of our packages are “completely” white labeled or private, with your branding only.

Which simply means BoonJack Media is not related to your website or multimedia package on any front-end, back-end, or website display, period.

We anonymously support our clients, and provide free anonymous nameservers registered privately offshore, or you can use your own. Your HD video and multimedia is delivered directly from your server account and website as well, unlike most video hosting providers which provide you a link to your video from their server to include on your website.

Open Source: BoonJack Media’s platform was built with and around open source architecture and software. We could have went with licensed, proprietary systems and software, but this would mean much higher costs for our clients, and a restrictive environment for our service offerings which we could not guarantee anonymously or white label.

You have complete control to add any service or software to your account desired, change the code, add any branding, or integrate into any other service or system too.

Support and Knowledge: We offer full support for every account, and provide an easy to use support ticketing system built into your administration GUI’s email system for quick and efficient communication with our team of experts standing by. Our Knowledgebase includes a wide range of tutorials both written and videos, step by step instructions, and help icons are just a click away conveniently provided throughout the entire platform.

I think that about cover’s the overview of our services, and why we’re a great choice for you to deliver HD video and multimedia for your business. If you have any other questions just drop us a line, we’ll be glad to help.

Really Fast HD Video?

Yeah we think so, but see for yourself HD Video Examples.

You can also view more examples of HD video and Hi-Def music on our demo sites, or our portfolio for some live action. The video titles have the types of video format parameters listed, check it out here.

If you have existing content on other video websites like; Youtube, Google, Dailymotion, Yahoo, Vimeo, Revver, Vzaar, BitsOnTheRun, Facebook, or any others you need transferred, no problem. Our platform supports easy integration, and video embeds for your website. If you are interested in moving or archiving all of your video content, we can help there too.

Where Can I Learn More or Get Started?

You can learn more on our Getting Started page which provides a guide for signing-up, with some cool screen shots too.

What Else Do You People Offer?

We provide full web development solutions for existing or customized platforms and systems, graphic and flash design services, video and audio solutions. We also provide consulting solutions for a wide variety of online services. If you have a project big or small, we can help!

Here’s our portfolio from some of our clients that don’t mind if we show off work we’ve done for them.

We specialize of course in multimedia and video systems, software, and platforms, but we have a lot of experience with the latest online technology in general. It’s a nature of the beast sort of thing, call it a prerequisite from building and developing multimedia website platforms.

Give us a shout, we’d be glad to help in whatever way we can. We’re a hard working team, straight shooters and will provide solid answers with efficient, affordable, high performance technology solutions to get the job done right.

Features

Here’s the list of features included with all of our website hosting packages.

Below is the list of over 200+ supported open source software and systems you can install on Every Multimedia Video Website Hosting Package we offer for Free, Enjoy!

HD Video and Multimedia Website #1

Upload a HD video test the speed!

Get your HD video on with this Free top-shelf HD video / Social Media website. It’s loaded with features, completely customizable, excellent for online video seo and marketing, integrates into any existing website platform, easy to use administration and management tools, great search engine rankings, and ready for your branding design. Plus you can easily install this video website yourself for FREE on any Multimedia video Website hosting package we offer with Fast HD Video Delivery – No streaming media server needed!

HD Video Site #1 Features Include:

• 5 full featured customizable video players to choose from via admin
• 2 design templates to choose from
• Social Media features and design format; messaging, comments, sharing, plus much more
• Full Admin GUI with User / Media Management System
• Similar design as Youtube; Groups, channels, roles, etc.
• Video RSS and mRSS Feed System
• 2 Video and Multimedia Encoding Libraries to choose from – FFMpeg and MP4Box
• Full Video Management and Editing System
• Video File Uploading System: Full Meta-Tagging and Video Embedding
• Full Advertising System for Video Banners and Site Ads: Monetize and Earn!
• Supports all Major Multimedia formats: FLV/MP3/AVI/WMV/3GP/MP4/WAV/F4V
• Plus much more, but we’ve made you yawn enough from reading about it… so go check it out for yourself!

FREE Software And Easy Installs Included With Every Package

[Try the demos below Or click the software links for demos]

Get FREE Software with any Multimedia website hosting package we offer with Easy DIY Full Installations and Admin Account Configuration including the Database with just a few clicks! On every BoonJack Media Package we offer these top-shelf, proven, award winning Open Source Software and Systems which are completely customizable to fit your branding and design located right in your cPanel Server GUI. All software easily integrates into any existing website platform, features an Admin GUI complete documentation, community support, design templates, helpful tutorials, forums, and much more to get you going on developing your website platform.

Don’t Get Bogged Down with Standard Shared Hosting Accounts Using These Power-Packed Software Systems!

All of Our Multimedia Website Hosting Packages come with a Maxed-Out Multimedia Server Configuration to Fully Support all the Software listed below. Achieving the Hi-Performance needed and desired for Your Online Business typically found only with dedicated servers.

An example, our PHP Memory Limit Allocation for every Multimedia Package is 512M per app! While standard shared hosting only offers you 32MB on average per account, and won’t allow modifying this level even if you have an “Unlimited” storage / bandwidth package or are a reseller. You need to upgrade to a dedicated server to get that kind of control.

How can we offer this kind of performance?

Simple, we don’t overload our servers. Typical shared hosting providers which sell “Unlimited” packages and add 400-600 accounts per server, so you’re actually sharing performance with 400 to 600 other websites just like yours. At that level of sharing per server, they have to allocate memory and have to restrict certain performance related features, so every account on the server isn’t overpowered from just one account.

We assign a maximum of 50 accounts per server, which is the primary reason we can provide superior performance, overall speed, and features for power-hungry apps or HD multimedia. If your website, app, or script needs bandwidth from traffic surges then we deliver it now – our network is 10MPBS burstable to 100MBPS.

Apache Linux Servers featuring FastCGI with Dynamic Caching and much more, plus all the latest and greatest goodies…

The bandwidth available on our servers are unlimited with raid and scaled clustering with solid state high-rpm hard drives.

We open up our servers and network full-throttle. Offering unlimited file uploading (1G file max) on every account upto your maximum account storage for large file management, or emailing files. Every account comes pre-configured with the complete range of Multimedia, Video, Structured Framework and Code libraries you’ll need for delivering your own Hi-Def video and multimedia content without the costly need of a streaming server.

BoonJack Media Has You Covered With Our BIG List

Open Source (FOSS) / Proprietary (LICS) Software and System Partners

We have spent numerous hours doing due diligence on our multimedia server platform. Our R&D is rigorous and unforgiving, we try to break the software first then attempt to fix it, this helps us discover the true inner workings and full capabilities of the software systems we’re considering. Out of literally thousands of software systems, we’ve only selected a few overall which we support and adopt for integration into our multimedia server platform. You can be assured the software and systems we approve and recommend are the best available solutions online, plus we’re continuously surfing the bleeding-edge of technology looking for more winners for approval and integration.

Below is “Our Big List” of Software and Systems we recommend – Over 250+ titles. All can be installed for FREE on ANY of our Multimedia Website Hosting Packages we offer.

Most of the software and systems listed are Open Source (FOSS), meaning the software is free to use under certain conditions and is supported by a community of people sharing in the continued development of the software and system together. We also recommend some Proprietary software and systems which require a paid license to own or use, all of which of course are well worth the jack.

Ok enough of the rant, let’s get on to “Our Big List” of stuff…

BoonJack Media is NOC partners with Softaculous and Installatron featuring their awesome automated installer’s.

These are by far the 2 best auto-installers available online we’ve found. Together they support over 250+ free software and scripts you can easily install in just a few clicks.

Softaculous and Installatron are included with every Package we offer.

Here’s a demo for Softaculous to play around with: Softaculous List and Demos

Check out our Softaculous Demo here, or simply admire the pretty image sample of free software that can be automatically installed in every web hosting package we offer!

Everything is Multimedia

Multimedia is basically everything considered “Content” within any given website. From photos/images, videos, text, graphics, Flash, JavaScript, and HTML 5 coupled with interactivity. The great thing is there’s no secret formula, or secret code you need to discover on “how to make multimedia happen” on your website nowadays. The Code resources are abundant, driven and led by organizations which power the web 3.0 movement.

The abundance of online resources available today is constantly growing, updating, and evolving all related to multimedia. Your only requirement is you’ve got to be plugged into it 24/7/365, knowing the difference between what works well, and what software and systems aren’t worth your effort. Having that time to spare while keeping up on the ever-changing world of multimedia is the real secret to making it happen for your business online today.

• So how can I plug into it all (but without that 24/7/365 part) you ask?

That’s a rather simple answer really, but first we should provide some more details about our multimedia efforts – while we try our best to be brief and not bore you into being a bounce stat.

BoonJack Media has spent several years in online multimedia, video technology business successfully – we’ve contributed to the video craze in various market sectors since 2004. Through the years we’ve been researching various systems and software continuously, trying to stay plugged-in to it. We’ve been developing our multimedia asset management platform for many years too, with the idea of making multimedia easy for anyone to utilize for website publishing. We’ve debunked countless systems, software online for multimedia and deemed most of  them worthless, but we’re always looking for the winners. We’ve installed, configured, tested, corrupted, consumed copious amounts of delicious java while reading support-forum threads until the birds start chirping, meticulously stripping away all the pump, spin and hype – trying to literally break it too discover the inner workings, the true reliability of the software and systems we ultimately adopt.

Out of thousands of R&D hours spent, we only settle for the best software and systems for our multimedia hosting platform. All of which are thoroughly proven, tested solutions which are rock solid, effective, and simple for anyone with average computer skills to manage, simply put…

Check out our Packages and other Stuffhere or below