Elf Designs Canada

The Hardwood Guy

MJ — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:41:23 +0000

Here is one of the latest websites created by Elf Designs. If you need any home renovation work, specifically flooring then visit The Hardwood Guy! www.thehardwoodguy.ca

Mobile App Development

MJ — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:18:09 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of what kind of mobile apps to develop. It seems like all the larger companies have developed apps or in the process of doing so. This is a great way of marketing, staying on trend, and ultimately increasing the bottom line – profits. But, for myself, what kind of apps could actually make my life easier?

Two things come to mind. The first is the amount of junk mail I get on a regular basis. The second is the fact that I recently bought a condo and think about the complexity of the home buying process. So I started looking and came across two great apps, I’d recommend to anyone.

We’ve all done it. Seen that our inbox has messages. You get excited. Is it an email money transfer? Is it an email from an old friend? Often, no! It’s spam! And no one likes it. I recently read that the average household receives over 850 pieces of spam over a year. Clicking “unsubscribe” often doesn’t work or often seems too intricate a process. PaperKarma lets users submit a photograph of each piece of junk mail they’d like to stop receiving and then works to make that happen!

I’m sure anyone who has purchased a house knows how difficult it is between the homebuyer and real estate agent to have consistent, convenient, and organized ways to maintain relations. Hakema books appointments between real-estate agents or sellers and potential buyers. For the seller, the appointment booking button may be integrated into online classified ads posted by real estate agents or even property owners. They set their ability and the service schedules appointments. For the buyer, the benefits include the ability to book appointments, getting confirmations and reminders of meetings, SMS messages if property is sold or if the price changes. Another great thing is that sellers and buyers receive daily summaries of their bookings!

Do you have any apps you’d like to recommend or any ideas for apps to develop?

Facebook Brand Page Guideline

MJ — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:42:28 +0000

Facebook recently rolled out timelines for personal profiles, providing users with a more hands on approach when it came to personalizing their page. These changes are now being applied to Facebook Brand Pages, with a few additional features. Page admins will notice messaging capabilities, an all-new dashboard for analytics, and a friends-focused approach to growing an audience. The one main difference however is that Facebook isn’t allowing Pages to include calls to action or overtly promotional text in cover photos. Your Page could include a logo or an image of your location or your staff in the cover photo, but it couldn’t say something like “Get 25% off” or “See more at our website.”.

Here are some tips that should help you to create an interactive Brand Page for your business:

Cover Photo: Timeline’s cover photo allows you to create an eye-catching, descriptive visual of your brand. Use every pixel of screen real estate available (851 x 315 pixels), and change the image occasionally, in step with campaigns or other events relevant to your brand.
Profile Image: This image represents your brand’s identity and should remain fixed. To get creative during campaigns, switch up your brand’s cover photo instead.
Milestones: A milestone is a major event that is particularly relevant to your brand, such as a product launch, personnel announcement, store opening, or other moment that is significant to your brand’s growth and development.
Pin Posts: A pin post is a post that a brand may “pin” to the top of its Timeline for 7 days at a time, as a way to curate its Timeline content and encourage a post’s “stickiness.”
Stars: Highlight an important post on your brand’s Timeline by “starring” it. When you star a post, it will expand to widescreen and always be visible. Milestones cannot be starred, so aim to star nonmilestone posts that you wish to call particular attention to.

Capturing Light Creates Endless Possibilities

MJ — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:24:55 +0000

Lytro recently released its latest camera that instantly captures complete light field data, giving you capabilities you’ve never had in a regular camera. One of the most interesting features is that this process enables you to focus your shot after the fact. This means that you can focus and re-focus, anywhere in the picture at anytime. This also eliminates the need for auto-focus, which can sometimes interfere with images due to the shutter speed. Another cool feature is the ability to instantly share your photos with everyone. You can share from Lytro.com to friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, email or even your blog.

How To Track Who’s Tracking You

MJ — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:21:09 +0000

As you navigate through the web, your browsing data is constantly being spread to various companies. In an effort to help users track this, Mozilla has developed an add on for Firefox called Collusion. It will show, in real time, how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers. Not all tracking is negative, however when users are tracked without consent it is wrong and hopefully this tool will aid in eliminating this trend in the future.

Mozilla has partnered with The Ford Foundation in hopes that they will enable users to not only see who is tracking them across the Web, but also to turn that tracking off when they want to.