Skype beta 5 VS Face time

Im a massive lover of all things Mac, but I think this time Skype have introduced something a bit special. If quality of content is not what your looking for then Skype is the answer.

The new beta 5 version introduces multiple video conferencing with a better UX – I hear you say nothing new there but what is very interesting and especially useful if you are working from home or doing online presentations is the “view desktop” aspect. This means that the viewer can see what you are doing on your desktop, whether its a presentation or a tutorial. It is great for getting your content across to people, and if you are a visual person like me its great!.

Skype however still falls down on quality where facetime exceeds…

Facetime has the ability to keep the quality high because it knows that the cameras being used are either HD quality or high quality video cameras ie MAC. They will always have the advantage until ALL computers will be using HD cameras and great connections. The answer for Facetime is to include the desktop feature.

Skype is still universally great for both Mac and PC.

cms

Hi this week Im looking at and talking about Content Managed Sytems – CMS for short. At omega3design I have used two main types; WordPress and Silverstripe. Both of which have there advantages and disadvantages. I know that there are many more like Joomla etc. But ill discuss these two, as they are more familiar to me.

Lets start with WordPress. WordPress is essentially a system used for blogging. However as of the last 2-3 years we have noticed a change in its usage – more and more people are using it for businesses and charities. It has become an easy tool for people to grab free “themes” and try and make them there own. The advantages are with wordpress is that it is cheaper to setup, however this can also be a massive disadvantage. When looking for a “theme” or getting a web designer to create you one, it becomes apparent that you are slightly restricted, but if that doesnt bother you carry on. Unfortunately wordpress has become so common that it has become easy to hack – so please be careful. Why not try and see for yourself – http://wordpress.org/

Ok Silverstripe – not really common to alot of us but an excellent and powerful web cms tool. Like wordpress it does have its themes but its real advantages are how much more diverse your designs can be. I prefer this as a cms if the client afford to pay. As this cms becomes more and more common there is also the great online support. So if your a web designer like me or a marketer looking for that extra special something – I believe this is worth a try – check out http://www.silverstripe.com/.

facebook to rival gmail

Social networks are now visited more often than personal email. In the future Facebook is looking to rival google’s gmail. By making it a one stop shop for all your online communication. This will be done by collating all your messages, posts and emails into one long conversation – like you would have down the pub or at home. Lazy for us or just genius.

I spy

Call it top secret, call it safe keeping, call it personal information, but many of us store this information on our laptops or smart phones. Passwords to facebook, passwords for emails – everything. Theives have realised that this is a prime target to get into our personal lives and businesses. But dont worry the techs have a plan! Today you can download apps and programs to combat this problem.

I have come across two major contenders ( there are plenty more out there, but these two have shown great promise! )

Mobile me is designed for apple products, the iPhone, iPad etc. It is FREE on an iPad, iPhone 4, new iPod touch running OS4.2. One of its great attributes is the ability to find my iPhone through a GPS system. You log in online enter your details and up pops a map with a pin, pointing you to its exact location. It doesnt stop there and I think that this is the clever bit. You can lock down the phone, wipe its memory and even send it a txt to tell the individual whatever you want eg ” give back my iPhone “. Thus saving your personal or business data – excellent! Check it out at here

Welcome to Prey! A nifty program on a paid for plan but also a FREE plan! This is great, it is on multi platforms ie Mac, PC and Android. I will wait with bated breadth for the iPhone edition. This works similar to the Mobile me however it goes that extra mile. Here is a senario – my laptop has been stolen! What you then do is like MobileMe, log into the Prey website and report it stolen. When the laptop is online, you will then receive an email – On it will be a link which you follow to the Prey site. You will then be shown 3 images. One is of the gps location of the laptop. Two is an image of the user, taken through the webcam. Three will be an image of the desktop, so you can see what the user is doing etc. There are other features available but this is a great deterant for all criminals.

If I was you I would get these programs installed before somebody steals your identity.