Well, It’s been a few days since I have posted anything on here, But I have a great excuse! Last week my previous cell phone, a Samsung d807x, decided it wanted to delete all of my contacts on it’s own. By doing so, it immediately got tossed and I went on a search for a new phone.
I had been waiting for a long time for Rogers to release the iphone in Canada, but clearly they are to stubborn over data rates to do anything about it. Anyways, I search craigslist for a few days and tracked down several numbers I thought could be good purchases. On Friday I went out to meet a guy who was selling an 8gb iphone, only used for 6 days (half the stuff still in wrapping). I had honestly never used the iphone before and was very curious to see if I would like the feel of the touch screen, and I was also skeptical if the phone would live up to the hype surrounding it. Well, the second I slid the “Slide to Unlock” button on the main screen, I fell in love. I was utterly amazed at the accuracy and feel of the touch screen! Everything about this phone is amazing! The physical styling looks gorgeous but also feels great, the screen is beyond anything I have ever seen, colors are incredible, the touchscreen - so smooth and quick to use, and best of all - OS X! Did I mention everywhere I go people stare at the phone in amazement?

I will get into a break down of all the features and a more in depth summary of the iphone in a future blog post. However, I will answer a few questions that I know will arise.

1. Durability?
   This is something I was very worried about when buying the phone. I usually treat my phones horrible and go through about 1 or 2 a year, just because I don’t really care about them. The iphone is different, upon buying the iphone I immediately went to the nearest 3rd party cellphone store (not Rogers or Fido or anything because they don’t have iphone accessories yet obviously) I found a store in Richmond Center Mall Called “Cellular Baby” which had what I was looking for. I purchased a clear screen protector which applies to the face of the phone with no air bubbles and no adhesive, you can’t even tell its there, as well as a silicon case that covers the body of the phone to keep it from scratching.
2. Unlocked Software?
   Well not much to say on this part. I know a lot of you have been wanting an iphone up here in Canada, but are nervous about buying it unlocked or buying one from the states and having it unlocked. The phone works perfect, and unlocking it only takes a few minutes. If this is the only thing holding you back from buying the iPhone, don’t let it! go out now and buy one! I would however like to mention that I love to support Apple’s products, they pioneer incredible technology, and I would have loved to buy the phone from them. Unfortunately, given my circumstances I had to get the phone ASAP and since Rogers wont get off there butt and work harder to support the iPhone, I had to buy it - Sorry Apple!
3. Data Rates!
   This is probably the main concern about using the iPhone in Canada. No one wants a $1000+ bill at the end of the month, just for browsing the web! Well, unfortunately if you try to connect through Rogers EDGE network, you WILL get a large bill. Fortunately, the iPhone is equipped with wifi so you can use it free of charge almost anywhere public these days. There are also websites and programs that show you where all the free hotspots are in your area. Even if I could use EDGE, I probably wouldn’t because the wifi on the iphone is very fast. Also keep in mind there is a rumor, that Rogers will have wifi disabled in there Canadian bound iphones to force people to use their EDGE network. If you look at their current line up of phones available, not one of them supports wifi!
4. Battery Life
   Short and sweet - Incredible! This phone has a massive display, but due to its ambient light sensor, it will adjust the screen’s brightness to what is best viewed in your current location. This saves a lot of battery power. (Quick Tip: If your low on battery, or just want to conserve it. Rather than adjusting the brightness yourself by clicking through the settings panel, simply cover the ear piece with your finger before you turn it on from standby and slide to unlock. This sets the brightness down low because it thinks it is in a dark room.) The other cool feature is the proximity senor,while you are talking on the phone, the screen senses it is close to your face and turns the screen off. This conserves a lot of power, and also eliminates the accidental hitting of touchscreen buttons while talking…

If anyone has anymore questions regarding the phone, please just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer them.
As promised I will do a thorough breakdown of the phone in my next posting. For now, I gotta go play with my iphone

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bBold! is pleased to be associated with the Seniors information directory of British Columbia and will be handling all design and production as well as databased web site applications.The 2008 plan calls for 22 neighborhood directories in the lower mainland, five on Vancouver Island and five in the interior of B.C. This handy guide provides a complete localized listing of housing, services and products and has been accepted by recipients as the single source for relevant information. Guides will be available in the following areas. Interior British Columbia (5)Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Penticton, KelownaLower Mainland and the Fraser Valley (22)Richmond, Delta, South Surrey, North Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, New Westminster, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Vancouver (7)Vancouver Island (5)Victoria, Saanich, Nanaimo, North-Central Island, Saanich Peninsula and the Islands.

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For all you Canadians wanting an iPhone, it looks like our time is near. Rogers Wireless has finally released an “Unlimited Data Plan” - Much like AT&T did in the U.S. a year ago. According to Rogers you can add the package to your existing contract for $20 extra per month. The plan offers the following features:

• Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing
• 2500 Sent Text Messages
• 1000 Sent Picture/Video Messages
• Voice Mail
• Call Display
• Name Display
• WhoCalled

Now, Rogers has not “officially” said the iPhone is coming, but considering this package was pretty much the only thing holding back the iPhone’s release, I would assume that it is just around the corner.

In Europe, when the iPhone was released, there was not much warning, I think consumers were only given a week or two notice it was coming. So maybe we will see the iPhone by the months end!

This move by Rogers is a HUGE step for the canadian wireless industry! The only concern I have is about the actual pricing of the phone, will get it at the same cost as our American neighbors, or will we experience the typical expensive Canadian price?

Either way, I know I’ll be having a sleep over outside my nearest Roger’s store in the near future!

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Over the past few days i’ve been going because my files (php, html, css, javascript etc.) have been opening in random applications. For example sometimes an html file will open in my web browser, sometimes in coda, some times in dreamweaver, and sometimes in xcode. I know u can use the built in settings for OSX by right clicking (option + click) on the file, then choose: Open with, then click on the app you want it to open in and click “Always open in the application”. Many attempts of doing this failed and the defaults program was still sporadic.

After a quick google I found a great little program that installs into your preference pane and allows you to set all of the file types’ default application. I would highly recommend this free plugin to speed up productivity on your mac!

Click here for the download page!

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Ever since these new Intel books from Apple started coming with built in iSight, I have been dyeing to video chat with all my buddies. If I had it my way, I would be on ichat and only ichat, however, since im in Canada and absolutely no one here uses AOL (AIM), ichat is basically a write off. The only exception is when I’m in the office and need to transfer files from one computer to another, then im all about “Bonjour” which I think is one of MAC OSX’s strongest features. Anyways - Back to my rant.

Windows users running windows messenger have had audio & video capabilities for as long as I can remember, as well as things like nudges, winks, games etc. Although most of those features are just little quirks, I still would like to see them on the Mac version of messenger.

Well Microsoft FINALLY got off their butt’s and release a new version of Office for mac (4 years to late). I realize that they had to convert all their code to run on intel macs properly but if Adobe can convert a whole creative suite to a new platform in about a years time, there’s no reason why Office took so long.

When Office 2008 was released in mid January, the Microsoft Business Unit (MBU) - who develops the mac based apps, told us the new version of Messenger would be available by the end of january. I have been watching the MBU’s mactopia site for any sort of update, but like usual, they don’t seem to care (not even a blog update!).

I’m really anxious to be able to finally use my Macbook Pro’s iSight for video chatting. Let’s just pray that the Messenger 7 for mac isn’t another typical bloated piece of software from Microsoft, much like the long awaited messenger 6 was. For the time being, I’m using Adium which is a fantastic app for chatting on multiple services at once. The team over at Adium says they are close to releasing a new version that also supports A/V, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adium supported the new features before the official release of Messenger 7.

This brings me to my question - Is Microsoft purposely delaying it’s release of products on the mac in order to push people to a Windows platform?

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Many wholesale companies have been slow to embrace the internet. Sure, they have a web site. Who doesn’t. But is it effective? Does it make money? Does it save you and your customers time? Do you get a return on your investment?

For many companies it is good to think of their web site as a branch operation. The good news is, it can be open 24/7 and requires few employees and very little overhead.

Customers want to place their orders on their own time, perhaps at home on the weekend. Companies need to make it easy for them to review your products and take immediate action.

On the other hand it must be taken seriously, and it is good to have a written business plan or strategy that will define success or failure. From this plan, a solid budget can be developed that covers the cost of developing, maintaining, promoting and growing your web based business. This requires a commitment from management to make this a success. You wouldn’t open a branch office and just leave it to sink or swim. You need to be actively involved in developing ideas and plans to get people to your online business and once there, utilize the services you provide. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. In today’s world, you need to be able to do business online or you will be left behind.

Eight ways to increase your wholesale web site business:

1. Use the power of a database driven site
2. Develop a user friendly online catalog
3. Harness the power of a shopping cart
4. Improve customer service with great design and navigation
5. Save money by using self admin tools
6. Increase sales by using SEO techniques
7. Increase sales by using e-mail and one to one marketing
8. Call bBold! Design

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Over the past week I’ve been trying to piece together this new blog and website. It doesn’t use anything to fancy coding wise, so I figured it would look ok on Internet Explorer 6 until I could take the time and fix the minor tweaks which there always is. However, I found out yesterday that was not the case. A friend of mine, messaged me telling me to check out the new site on IE6. When I did, I just about burst into tears, well not actually, but I was pretty choked. Now, I don’t want to turn this into a bashing Microsoft thread, but honestly! You would think that the largest software company in the world could design a half decent web browser that met basic web standards. It’s absolutely ridiculous that web developers have to basically code two separate CSS files just so things are displayed on Microsoft’s horrible IE6 browser.

That being said, I also find it unbelievable that when IE7 was release, people who are not running XP or Vista could not install it! The least Microsoft could do is offer an update for IE6 to bring it to the current web standards so users that are not on their latest operating systems can still have a half decent browsing experience. This is just another way Microsoft forces people into buying their bloated, messy software.

So Internet Explorer users PLEASE upgrade to IE7 if you can, or even better try out Mozilla’s Firefox!

Once again, sorry if you IE 6 viewers were visiting our site over the past few days, it should be all back together now and viewable properly.
Please let me know if u find any other little things that aren’t looking or working right.

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The guys over at Morowat Global came to us for several projects in 2007. As a start up manufacturing and machine tool sales company they needed pretty much everything from a logo and signage to a website.

The website consisted of a custom built job management program written in PHP and MYSQL. This program allowed the owner to manage all the jobs that were on going in his manufacturing shop, from anywhere in the world. By doing this he could also keep and eye on the hours each machine was in use so he could plan for routine maintenance at certain time intervals. The program also allowed for him to print quotes for new jobs and print out the manufacturing routine (called an M&I). This gave the guys on the shop floor something to follow when manufacturing the parts for each job.

We also built a large public site for the company to sell their machines and other machine tools online. The site, which can be viewed here was built with our custom designed “wholesale” shopping cart. This allowed users to organize what the wished to purchase and place the final order online. However since the products are so large (we’re talking 1000’s of pounds) each order needed to be managed personally and have the proper shipping arranged. Since this was the case, once a customer placed an order, it is forwarded to the sales department at Morowat Global, where the remainder of the transaction is completed.

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I saw this floating around you tube the other day, and i just had to post it. It’s pretty well done and I would say it portrays the sites quite nicely.

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The Challenge
The client wished to leverage their success in Independent Living housing by designing a large scale project involving two buildings connected by an innovative Skybridge. Traditionally, Independent living projects are marketed as all-inclusive monthly rentals. In this case the client wished to market 45 units as high end market housing and part of the challenge was to make potential buyers comfortable with purchasing a unit in a rental project. In addition the client wished to pre-sell the units prior to the opening of the common area and additional amenities.

Solution
Based on previous experience pre-selling to seniors the client wisely agreed to forego a true pre-sales campaign and elected to build a presentation centre in one of the buildings and a campaign was begun approximately six months prior to the occupation date. We identified a slightly younger buyer group than traditional independent living clients as our best prospects. As owners they could use the wonderful amenities such as the resistance pool, and fitness spa as well as a 35 seat theatre without committing to meals, laundry and other services. The suite were finished to high degree of luxury competitive with other market housing projects in the area.Logo and positioning The plan for the project was to create a South east Asia inspired Zen-like atmosphere that was both calming and restful yet encouraged an active lifestyle. All Avenir projects are positioned under the banner “Resort Retirement Living” and it was important to create resort like feel to all communications. We of course developed all the stationery, cards, signage and other branding material with great care to carry the theme.

Advertising Campaign
White Rock/South Surrey has a large population of seniors and the initial advertising was in Local papers and featured half page colour and black and white ads that were low key and informational. The call to action required clients to phone directly or register on the web site to ensure their VIP position. While the emphasis was on pre-sales we also hoped to create awareness of the rental possibilities. The ad showed the wonderful amenities and used lifestyle photos of active real looking that appealed to our younger market segment. The campaign successfully generated enough leads that we did not have to roll out the direct mail flyer and all the two bedroom units were sold within the first two weeks.

The Web Site
The developer decided that instead of separate web site for this project they wanted a re-designed corporate site to better sell the Avenir Brand. Within this web site all the Avenir projects are featured in an easy to navigate, senior friendly style In addition, we developed a four minute movie that gave the developers Les Craik and his wife Violet a chance to share their passion for their business and their vision of a new era in retirement living. This was backed up by heartfelt testimonials from residents of their Peninsula project.

www.avenirgroup.ca

The Sales Center
We worked with the Avenir design group to provide the signage, wayfinding and lifestyle graphics for the vibrant sales center. The graphics worked with beautiful colors and communicated the essence of a vibrant active community.

The Presentation Folder
The folder has a Zen like spa feel that represents a calm restful but active lifestyle to be found a the Pacifica. The brochure contains beautifully printed photos of the project rendering and lifestyle shots Of residents truly enjoying their new found freedom. The folder contained a complete list of amenities and service as well as floor plans for the typical units, both rental and ownership suites.

Promotional items
We were worked with the sales staff to design and develop thoughtful giveaways ranging from branded canvas tote bags, note pads, pens umbrellas and much more.

Resort Retirement Living Planner Kit
We developed and designed a detailed planner and checklist that addressed many of the concerns of seniors moving from their family home. The kit contained moving check list as well as a financial calculator to help them determine the affordability of this critical decision.

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