Archives for Software
B2B iPAD Apps: Trends and Tips for Successful Projects
I’ve been impressed with how many CEOs, CMOs and CIOs became early adopters of the iPad. Here are some things I am hearing from the C-Suite: I use the iPad for remote desktop access. It is lighter and has better battery life than a notebook. We are designing product demos on tablet computers for our sales staff to [...]
The Tao of Pop Art: Part Two
Surviving Innovation: Development Strategies for Emerging Technology When I arrived at Pop Art in April, the team was hard at work on a campaign for the Oregon State Lottery. Megamillionizer.com is unique – a 3D interactive experience that combines augmented reality, community participation and social sharing to create awareness and engagement for the Lottery’s newest game, MegaMillions®. The campaign [...]
iPhones are now “Officialy uncool”: Why I bought one, why I love it, predictions on Android v. iOS
Author’s note: I activated my new iPhone4 this week. Why I needed a new iPhone: My Microsoft Windows Smart Phone was over 3 years old, and I desperately needed a new one. I wanted to quickly surf the Net from any location. Lots of girls only date guys with iPhones – the iPhone shows that you are both smart and [...]
Nobody’s Perfect: Apple’s iTunes Terms of Use
“Easy. Intuitive. Effortless. Friendly.” These are all words often heard when describing Apple’s products. As a longtime Mac user, I’m constantly amazed at the trouble Windows users are willing to go through in installing software, cameras or printers. Apple builds great usability and attention to detail into every product they release, and this commitment has [...]
Augmented Reality Promotion for the Oregon Lottery
To build buzz and excitement around the new Mega Millions® product, Pop Art and the Oregon Lottery® teamed up to create an experience that allows users to envision what their lives would be like should they win a Mega Millions jackpot. This program leverages Augmented Reality technology to allow users to create a unique, virtual [...]
The Tao of Pop Art
Living Small: A Four Part Series Part One: Introduction I am Chris Cortez, the new Director of Software Development for Pop Art. I moved to Portland six weeks ago with my wife and two daughters from Austin, Texas, where I was Director of Technology for the interactive agency Schematic. I am writing this initial blog series to [...]
Humanize Technology or Become Mechanized?
An interesting question in these technologically driven times. The title of this post sums up the “big take away” from the recent Web Visions 2010 conference. Leave it to Portland, Oregon to put on a mind bending technology palooza of trends, implications and applications. Brad Smith’s brain child, the event celebrated its 10th anniversary this [...]
Dear Shippers: More Data, Please
I recently had a very frustrating experience with a national shipping company whose names rhymes with Ped Rex. Short version: I shipped a package with some very valuable contents ($1750) to Chicago for Monday delivery. I dropped the package off on Saturday morning, and I was already a little miffed when I had to pay [...]
The State of Facebook Tab Applications
What are “tab applications”? There’s been a growing trend lately in Facebook applications as tabs. What are those? You know, those tabs next to “wall” or “photos” on a Fan Page’s profile that are actually apps. Brands use them as extensions of campaigns, as a gateway to a microsite, or sometimes just a plain old contact form. Tab [...]
Geolocation; localized content hits home
The online user experience is becoming more localized and we expect to see major growth in the coming years as AT&T, Google, Yelp, Foursquare and others get into the action. We already have geo-targeted ads, segmented content and social search serving content in a more personalized way. But now, we are seeing the emergence of [...]
Web Analytics
Marketers have always used analytics to measure consumer behavior and ROI. However, we now have more insight than ever before thanks to the internet’s ability to offer limitless measurement and analysis opportunity. The web analytics industry which had been fledgling in past years, now takes center stage in today’s global market place. There are several [...]
Great Clients make for Great Campaigns
A friend once told me that behind every great campaign is a great client. Of course, what they meant was that a client who trusts you take their brand in new directions will likely be a collaborator in the creative process. This could not have been truer than in the case of the latest online [...]
What I wish the Apple Tablet Was
Last night, I was secretly hoping this long-rumored Apple device was just a big hoax. Seriously, how funny would that have been if all the rumors were nothing but … rumors? But as Anton and I got to talking about it, we started imagining the purposes a keyboard-less, WiFi-enabled touchscreen might have in our daily [...]
Contrasting iPhone Development Tools
When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, I was very disappointed when Steve Jobs announced that developers would only be able to write web applications that run inside of Safari. Thankfully, Apple shifted course a year later and released the iPhone SDK and things became much more interesting. Developing applications that are targeted for the iPhone [...]
So, You Asked for a CMS
In my position, I get to respond to a bunch of RFP’s. If there’s a marketing/brochure web site involved, you can make a reasonable bet that the RFP includes a content management system (CMS). These solutions are super easy to build and deploy, but organizations are often unaware of the entire bargain. The promise of a [...]
Google Chrome Frame for Internet Explorer
Long story short, Google released a plugin for IE 6, 7 and 8 that will run Google Chrome (which uses webkit) inside a frame in the IE browser. Now IE6 can be standards-compliant, and all versions of IE get blazing fast javascript and HTML 5 support. Sounds great, but there are some problems, as lifehacker [...]
Eliminating Development Traffic from Your Google Analytics Stats
Recently we were asked by a client if traffic from their test site was being posted to a Google Analytics (GA) account. It turns out it is. Not only that, so is any version of the site hosted on their development and test servers, and any developer’s local site. We tested this by placing several pages [...]
IE8 Compatibility Mode and IE7 are Not the Same Thing
Just so we’re clear, testing your website in an actual copy of IE7, and testing in IE8’s Compatibility Mode are not the same thing. Compatibility Mode does an acceptable job of imitating IE7, and for the average user who’s just trying to fix a site that looks broken under IE8, it’s good enough. However, there [...]
How to Do Something You’ve Never Done Before
As a technologist, I’m often asked to do something that I’ve never done before and have no specific competency in performing; tasks which I’m completely unqualified to execute. The more palatable way of saying the same thing is: As a consultant, technical lead, solutions engineer or a business analyst, I’m given challenges that require me to identify [...]
Intelligent Defaults Save Time
Have you ever been a regular at a coffee shop? The barista knows you by name, and every morning when you come by, she’s already got your Triple Non-Fat Sugar-Free Vanilla Latte waiting for you. That’s an intelligent default. She doesn’t know for sure that’s what you want, or even that you’ll come in today, [...]
Free Advice for Adobe Acrobat Programmers
I often find myself making PDFs to send our design work over to clients. Acrobat is a great little program that nearly everyone has, and is rarely blocked by corporate firewalls. It’s generally very easy to use, too. Here’s how I make most PDFs for client presentations. Make comps. This takes some time. Drag files onto Acrobat icon [...]
How to Convert from Community Server 2007 to Wordpress
It’s safe to say that no one at Pop Art was ever really happy with Community Server. We selected it as a platform for a variety of reasons, some of which turned out to be based on faulty assumptions. Once we finally made the decision to switch to Wordpress, the conversion was a huge pain, [...]
Where are all the Mac Developers?
I heard an interesting quote on a recent podcast of RunAsRadio.com, where the guest talking with Richard and Greg said: We’re the second largest Mac development shop in the world behind Apple. We have more Mac developers than anybody except Apple. Who is “we”? Well, Microsoft of course! This seemed counter-intuitive at first, but after you consider everything [...]
JavaScript Injection Attacks
A little over a week ago, I described Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks and how they can damage your site with just a simple website request using any modern browser available today. This time, I’ll describe another type of JavaScript attack that can cause equal harm to your site. Lots of sites, including blogs, accept user input. [...]
Windows Notepad Stinks!
When making quick changes to an existing code file, using Visual Studio is akin to hitting a nail with a sledge hammer. These tasks are best suited for a simple text editor. Like most operating systems, Windows includes a small text editor named Notepad for completing such tasks. The problem with Notepad is that it’s completely [...]
