Apple iPhone goes surfing with Surfline.com app
The Apple iPhone has to be one of the greatest inventions. Right up there with microwave oven and CDs. With tons of apps, there is sure to be something to suit your fancy. For me it’s the weather and surfing apps. Like Surfline’s surf report app with 150 live-streaming cameras positioned at key surf spots around the globe and a sophisticated software system designed to predict wave conditions even a week in advance, Surfline.com is a surfer’s paradise. That’s why 1.5 million unique web users—and 500,000 more on mobile—use the site every month.
To help keep Surfline constantly updated and running, Scientific Product Manager Graeme Rae uses an iPhone. “The surf doesn’t stop,” he says. “And with the Apple iPhone, I can reboot a server from the beach. I can reboot a server from bed. I can even reboot it from work.”
“A lot of us here at Surfline, before we get out of bed in the morning, we roll over and check the surf and the cameras on our iPhones. The idea of seeing a video on a mobile device was a dream for people for a long time. And that time is now.” says Brian Mezger, Director of Technology at Surfline.
Read the full story at http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/surfline/?sr=hotnews.rss
9 steps to a successful site redesign
Despite the known value a good website can bring, take a moment and think about just how many poor websites you encounter every day. While not every business needs its site to be a high-budget, multimedia extravaganza, every business does need its site to be effective, and properly targeted to its audience.
Your website is the window to your company. The internet is becoming the most accessed form of media, and websites have become the most essential marketing tool for businesses. It’s no longer a question of whether or not you have a site—it’s all about having an effective one. One click from a customer is a valuable opportunity that can make all the difference. If created properly, a website should instinctively lead visitors where you want them to follow.
Certainly no one sets out with the goal of producing an ineffective website. Why, then, are poor websites so prevalent? The answer is almost always that there was not enough time spent planning. (The harsher reality is that many do not even have a plan at all.) People rush into putting up a quick site because they think it will hold them over until they get around to the big launch.
This is a fallacy—it is almost always far more difficult to rebrand an existing website than to start with a good one. In many industries there seems to be a huge gap between resources devoted to “old-world” marketing strategies and newer forms of media. Make no mistake about it—great websites result from an ideal combination of marketing, branding, fresh content, and matching the right technology to the right design.
Get the full story at iMedia Connection
April 01, 2009
