Mobile App Aids Motorists In Accidents

Posted on March 23, 2023 by schatzi

Beyond being an indispensable accessory for the social network-enabled generation, smartphones are finding use as extremely useful, even life-saving devices for a lot of other users. While drivers could use such apps for navigation purposes, maintenance tracking and location-aware services, other occupants find uses for these smart devices as TVs, music players and gaming devices.

One smartphone app that promises to be a godsend to people involved in an accident is called “Help I crashed my car”. Available for an unbeatable price (free!), this app allows to contact your family or friends in one click. While not as usually on a daily basis as, say a navigation app, “Help I crashed my car” is clearly an app that will act like a guardian angel in life-threatening situations.

Using wireless technology, “Help I crashed my car” is basically an emergency communications system for people involved in an accident. Aside from providing immediate notification to up to three persons, the system also connects with your nominated insurance agent, the insurance company and an auto body repair shop of your choice. With GPS-enabled smartphones, the app can can even send a map detailing the location of your crashed vehicle to the auto body repair shop, police department, emergency services and towing and rental companies. And since a smartphone inevitably contains a camera, the app also allows you to send pictures of the scene to any recipient you choose.

While the app may seem frivolous at first, anyone who’s been involved in an accident knows the value of what this app offers. More often than not, a vehicular accident will disorient and confuse the people involved, and the thought of being able to send for help in one click is a big comfort. That’s all you need. Put the app on a speed key or hotkey and you don’t have to fumble around when you need it most. Unfortunately, “Help I crashed my car” and the services it connects to is available for North Americans only. While accessible too with a laptop or a tablet, it’s a phone that we always carry with us, so it’s the logical device to put this useful app in.

Compared to a fuel calculator, trip meter or navigation aid, this app actually has the potential to save lives. We can only be thankful that some clever people are giving away for free such useful phone apps that obviously took time and some money to develop.

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Turn You Android Mobile Into an EBook Reader – Aldiko

Posted on March 22, 2023 by schatzi

Being an avid reader, I have been fascinated with all these new eBook Readers popping up every now and then. Even though I was quite inclined to get an eBook reader for myself, I decided to be patient for some time as this is an area where lots of innovation and improvement can be expected quite rapidly as it is still an emerging technology.

But hold on, you can actually get your mobile to work as an eBook reader if you are using an Android platform as there is this extremely impressive app called the Aldiko eBook Reader that had me completely floored!

To get the app for free, just go to the Android Market from your phone and search for “ebook reader” or better still – “Aldiko”. Just download and install the app and you are ready to go! The Aldiko EBook Reader comes with two free eBooks which I admit wouldn’t interest many, but there are a vast variety of free ebooks on offer that you can choose from and download to your phone for free.

To get started, you can get a feel of Aldiko’s eBook reader on their website. Aldiko wins your attention on its first look with its very appealing and aesthetically designed interface. The Aldiko eBook reader provides three basic sections upfront – the Recent Reads which shows books you are currently reading, your Bookshelf which is the collection of all books you have on your mobile phone and the Download Books section wherein you can search catalogs and download books.

The Aldiko eBook Reader uses ePub format for ebooks which opens up a vast repository of books that you can find to download from a variety of sources like the “epub books” site or “feedbooks” site.

The Samsung Galaxy 3 phone that I use provides for a reasonably wide screen thus making the reading experience quite enjoyable. You don’t feel for a second that you are reading the book on your mobile, it seems like an eBook reader in your hand! Moreover, Aldiko is completely customizable and you can toggle between the day and night modes of reading, set brightness, fonts size, book orientation, etc. You can bookmark pages for reference and you also have an option for “dictionary” where you may search for word meanings – but I must warn you, it is no inbuilt dictionary as such but just takes you to Google and searches for the word’s meaning on Google – which is not a bad thing in any case!

The navigation in Aldiko is quite intuitive and convenient. Turning pages is as easy as flipping the finger or tapping the screen, you can of course have your own settings for this as well. Aldiko also provides for the table of contents to jump to any section of the book. You can even track your progress through the book as you read.

So much bundled into an eBook reader for your mobile! Whoa!! Who needs a dedicated eBook reader after this!!! When you get such a feature rich application turning your mobile into an eBook reader that competes in its functionality with any specialized reader out there, all for free and coupled with your mobile, why would one want to go in for a dedicated gadget to read books alone and not be able to do anything else with it!

The only limitation that I see is the screen size, which in fact has nothing to do with Aldiko but is solely dependent on the handset you have! With the Samsung Galaxy 3 offering a 3.2 inch screen, it makes it perfect for reading ebooks. No doubt, the bigger the better but it all comes down to – how much can you afford to spend! But whatever the case might be, one thing is for sure, if you do have to spend a given amount of money say 15000 rupees, I would any day go in for an android phone with a reasonably wide screen than a dedicated stand alone eBook reader!

Do try out this app if you are a reading addict. You would love it for sure! Aldiko eBook Reader gets a well deserved 4.5/5 from us – if only it had more to offer in terms of the ebooks with some more popular and current books being made available, it would be a perfect 5/5!

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Marketers Aim for a Globalized Digital Presence

Posted on March 3, 2023 by schatzi

In the digital world brands are able to connect with consumers and fans from all over the world with relative ease. The web and social networks in particular have brought brands and their fans from around the world, closer together. However, this has made it even more important for brands to cater to a wide variety of users by creating customized content and making sure that their entire fan base remains engaged.

Acknowledging your international community

Once your brand goes global there is little you can do to stop it. A global community of followers can be advantageous in terms of building your brand’s exposure and will undoubtedly help your brand’s revenues boom – especially if you offer ecommerce service with international shipping. But, it can sometimes be difficult to connect with a varied audience – especially when language barriers create communication worries.

In order to overcome the problem of trying to connect with in international audience many brands are opting to maintain more than website and/or social media profiles. According to a study conducted by Limelight Networks 28% of respondents were currently managing six to 10 regional websites, while 32% managed even more. Many intended to add further regional sites as well as additional language support. But running these multiple platforms causes a strain on resources with the marketers surveyed all admitting that managing such a wide-ranging digital presence, as well as staffing and budgetary issues was a major concern.

“Globalizing a web presence entails more than simply translating a company’s primary site-it also includes developing, deploying, localizing, and regularly maintaining sites with regionally specific content,” said Jeff Freund, vice president and general manager for web content management at Limelight Networks, in a statement. “Marketers face the challenge of deploying multiple regional sites in multiple languages and featuring custom content that is unique to each region-while still ensuring brand consistency worldwide.”

Embed a global mindset into your brand’s digital marketing

So how can brands maintain their connection to an international community of followers and fans? One of the first steps is by working international knowledge and events into all aspects of your brand’s digital marketing – and email marketing in particular. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of communicating with a global audience. By making use of a carefully profiled database, your brand will be able to adapt campaigns in order to cater to the needs of different communities.

Showing your awareness of global events will increase your brand’s scope and global appeal. Addressing global issues that affect everyone, not just your brand’s local community, is a good way of exhibiting your brand’s understanding of the world as a connected pace. This is not necessarily limited to weighty issues that affect communities -it can be as fun as a global product launch or a holiday celebrated by people around the world.

Keeping track of a global community of consumers is not easy, but in the digital age this has become necessary. By making sure your brand stays abreast of what’s happening in the global sphere and connecting to your consumers in a way that acknowledges their global status – you will foster an international family that will grow and flourish in time.

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Choosing the Best Mobile Web Options for Your Business

Posted on February 1, 2023 by schatzi

No one can deny that the arrival of smart phones and tablets has permanently changed the digital landscape. Businesses used to only have to worry about maintaining a regular website; now, they must take into account the rapidly growing number of potential customers who will be searching for their businesses on smart phones and other mobile devices. And with mobile internet browsing expected to overtake desktop use by 2014, now is the time for business owners to make sure that their online presence is appealing and accessible for mobile users.

There are multiple ways to achieve the goal of having a mobile-friendly online presence. These include using responsive design, building a designated mobile website, and/or creating a mobile application. Depending on the industry, one or more of these may be a good fit, but it’s important to review the options before investing your time and money.

Also referred to as adaptive design, responsive design refers to a web design that can “respond” or adjust to be viewed on any device, of any size. The design “talks” to the device that is viewing the site and responds accordingly. This automatic adjustment helps to avoid frequent zooming in and out or repeatedly having to scroll across large pages on a mobile device’s small screen. This can be a great choice for creating a single website that can be successfully viewed on multiple devices without having to design an additional mobile site. One downside to responsive design is that there is no “responsive advertising,” meaning that your banner and display ads may not display properly unless they are specifically designed for mobile devices.

A mobile site is a website — created with linked-together HTML pages that users access through an internet browser, like any other website — that is specifically designed to work on a smaller display with a touch screen. Similar to responsive design, the design recognizes the use of a smart phone or tablet and redirects users to the mobile version. Mobile sites typically feature streamlined navigation consisting of easily-clickable buttons, and the content presented is often prioritized to display the most crucial information for users on-the-go, such as locations or contact information. Users may still opt to view the full site by clicking a link at the bottom of the home page. Mobile sites are limited by the devices that use them — there is no option to hover over a link on a touch screen.

A mobile application, or app, is a software application that users have to download and install to their phones. Mobile applications allow for greater interactivity, database integration, and gaming possibilities. Mobile apps can be a great way to present some of your business or brand’s most popular interactive functions in a streamlined way — such as online shopping, banking, or interactive maps that display information in relation to a user’s location. Mobile apps may or may not require a user to be connected to the internet. When creating a mobile app, you must decide which platforms will have access to it — if you want it to be available to both Apple and Android users, you may have to build the application twice.

Depending on the size and scope of your business, you may be able to meet your needs with only one of the above choices, or you may benefit from having all three. Making sure that your website itself is mobile-ready is a good first step before adding applications. In any case, there’s no time like the present to make sure that your business is ready to accommodate the rapidly growing number of mobile users.

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