Apple has allowed life to be even simpler in managing your content with the launch of the iCloud. The iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, contacts, calendars, documents and more. Furthermore this free cloud service allows consumers to automatically and wirelessly store content in the iCloud keeping them up to date across all devices without the need for syncing each device (iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac® or PC).

iCloud’s mains features are as follows:

• Automatically downloads new app and book purchases, any previously purchased iTunes content and your ad-free mail account hosted at me.com to all your devices

• Automatically keeps all documents up to date across all your devices

• Efficiently manages your Photo Stream by synchronising your last 1,000 photos to allow for more storage space. In addition any photos taken on one device will automatically appear on your other devices

• Scans the songs in your music library and matches them to more than 20 million songs available on the iTunes store

• Automatically and securely backs up information to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi whenever your iOS device is connected to a power source

• Assists in setting up a new iOS device or restoring the information on devices already owned

• The find my iPhone app can facilitate in locating any of your devices that are missing

• The find my friends app lets you share your location with friends which appear on a map that can be viewed at any time

Furthermore the iCloud is included with iOS 5. iOS 5 provides new and improved features such as iMessage, an innovative way to easily view and manage your messages across all of your devices.

*Images Courtesy of Apple.

As new technology breaks onto the scene, BrandManager brings you a sneak peak at the new Parrot Asteroid.


"Parrot, one of the leaders in wireless peripherals for mobile phones, reveals Parrot Asteroid, a new generation of car receiver combining advanced hands-free telephony with – for the first time ever – access to web services. With Asteroid, Parrot is steering the future of internet in the car and offers a solution adapted to aftermarket and OEM." Announced Parrot

Hands free and extendable with android apps, (maps, roadtrip with points of interest, Wikango with speed camera locations, weather forecast information during your entire trip, TextFriendly allows you to compose SMS via voice control and TuneIn provides access to music, sports and news with over 50,000 stations to choose from).

Available from October 2011 - Click here to visit the Parrot Asteroid site.

Would you like to…

• See your brand as fresh and tech-savvy?
• Drive more traffic to your website?
• Engage your consumers by giving them instant access to what they want?

Talk to Brand Manager about how to achieve all that and more using this cool, interactive technology called QR codes.




What is a QR code you ask?

Scan your smart phone on the secret code above to find out more (You may need to first download the free reader app.)

A QR code is a specially coded 2D barcode, which is readable by a smart phone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry). All that is needed is to install one of the many free QR reader apps and a whole lot of information becomes instantly accessible with a simple scan of your phone.

We’re all familiar with barcodes and essentially that’s what a QR code is. However the biggest difference with these fancier barcodes is that they can direct your consumers to a world of information. A QR code is a specially coded 2D barcode, which is readable by a smart phone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry). All that is needed is to install one of the many free QR reader apps and a whole lot of information becomes instantly accessible with a simple scan of your phone.

The cool thing about these barcodes is that they can do a lot of different things, they can activate a number of phone functions, link to digital content on the web, send customers to any website or give your customers the option to instantly contact your company via email or phone. A QR code can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information and can be coded with your company’s website, your Facebook page, your blog, your twitter account, YouTube Channel etc. The options are endless!



Businesses in Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands have been using QR codes for a while now, with Western countries slowly starting to recognise the usefulness of these strange-looking barcodes. Businesses in Australia are now beginning to acknowledge the benefits of utilising such a tool and QR codes are starting to pop up on window displays, posters and coupons around the country.

QR codes allow you to measure response rates with a high level of accuracy, in turn allowing you to clearly calculate your return on investment, making them ideal for small businesses.

If you would like to offer your customers a innovative and interactive way of connecting with your business, why not let us show you how to best incorporate QR codes into your marketing campaign? Get in touch with Brand Manager today and let us devise a plan to engage your consumers using the technology of QR codes.

Call 1300 55 30 33 or email info@thebrandmanager.com.au to talk to us about marketing your brand using QR codes.

Sony Computer Entertainment Announces its Next Generation Portable Entertainment System

Ultimate Portable Entertainment System Makes its Debut this Year,

Further Expanding the PlayStation® Business in the Portable Gaming Market

Sony recently announced its next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP), which delivers the ultimate portable entertainment experience. NGP will make its debut at the end of 2011 but here's your sneak preview.

NGP is designed to offer unparalleled interactive entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation®. This new system offers a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context, made possible by leveraging SCE’s experience from both PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 (PS3®) entertainment systems.

Deep and immersive gaming is at the core of PlayStation’s DNA, and NGP is the latest embodiment of this vision. By having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, NGP will enable infinite possibilities for users to “encounter,” “connect,” “discover,” “share” and “play” with friends wherever they are. Within the device are a range of features that provide a genuinely cutting-edge, next generation ultimate portable entertainment experience.

 

Stunning OLED and Revolutionary User Interface

NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” moves of the fingers.

 

Super Oval Design and Dual Analog Sticks

 

While succeeding the basic design philosophy of PSP, NGP adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, created to fit comfortably in the users’ hands. For the first time, a portable entertainment system will feature two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience.

 

LiveArea™

Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called “LiveArea™” where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through the PlayStation®Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an “Activity” log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.

 

Near

SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called “Near,” developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.

 

New Game Medium

NGP adopts a new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for NGP software titles. Taking advantage of the flash memory feature, this innovative card can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card. By adopting flash memory based card, SCE will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data to deliver rich and immersive games.

NGP will also come equipped with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, all of which are designed to enable users to enjoy the world of entertainment that is linked with real life experiences.

PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for Android™ based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

The concept of personal branding has been discussed widely across the net yet many people think that it is confined to the celebrity set like Paris Hilton or Justin Timberlake. By definition, personal branding is ‘the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands’. Today the idea of ‘self-packaging’ is becoming more of a necessity than a desire due to the rise in popularity of social media technology.

Social media tools have levelled the playing ground and thus enabled us to reach incredible heights where the cost to entry is only really our time. Plus, in an amazingly short space of time we can achieve as much presence as most startups and mid-size companies or products.

So what face do you want to show to the world and how will you position yourself for success? To help you decide, here are five steps to ‘the art of personal branding’ …

Discover your niche
The first step in the personal branding process is to discover and select your niche so that you can become the master of your domain. Take an inventory of your skill set and determine what it is that you can be seen as a specialist in – this will become your ‘online domain’. Start by registering your ‘name as a domain’ for example, www.johnsmith.com so that you can own your slice of the world wide web.

Your personal branding ‘tool kit’
Your personal branding ‘tool kit’ consists of the elements that you need to highlight your brand and communicate your niche. In your kit you will need a business card – both printed and online versions. To create and distribute your online business card use a free site like www.businesscard2.com.
Next you will need a professional resume – online resources like www.theresumebuilder.com can assist here. This is important not just for job hunting but also to include when promoting your business to new clients. Last but not least, you will need a visual portfolio that will consist of a professional studio-shot of yourself, a CD or DVD of your work and a short profile video of yourself that can be posted to You Tube.



Create your online profile
An online profile across the social media platforms of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is where people will probably find you first. Here’s a snapshot of the power and reach of this popular phenomenon …

LinkedIn – around 700,000 users across Australia increasing by 23% in just the last eight months. Now with 60 million users worldwide.

Facebook – around five million users across Australia and an amazing 500 million worldwide in 2010

Twitter – around 250,000 users across Australia growing by a staggering 1,067%. Today we are seeing around 50 million tweets being posted per day – that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.

Facebook alone has over 160 million personal profiles, but almost none of them have branded themselves properly using this medium. Make sure that your ‘personal brand’ is reflected consistently across all these mediums and that you manage it well, for example select the privacy options available that disable the ability for people to tag you in external pictures and videos.

Establish a blog
If you are going to carve a niche in the market and become know as an ‘online specialist’ in your field then you will need a blog. A blog allows you to post articles you have written, add links, pictures and work examples as well as being featured on your personal domain website. Moreover, those who blog will create a stronger asset than those who don’t because blogs rank higher in search engines and therefore make it easier for people to search and view your expertise and interest areas over time.



Communicating your personal brand
Your personal style is tangible and is extremely important for standing out from the crowd. Invest in training to improve your presentation skills and select clothing that best represents you and enhances your ‘brand message’. Remember that it will be this look and presentation that will be viewable through your pictures/avatars and video clips online, as well as when you meet people in reality.

Now the work really begins - don’t be fooled by the myth that if you build it, they will come. To create and establish your ‘personal brand’ you will have to actively communicate everything that you have created to others and the world. Have you ever hear the term, "it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?" Well, nowadays it’s not so much of even who you know but more importantly ‘who knows you.

During April to June 2010, Careers That Matter and Pathways That Matter travelled to 13 cities around the country, delivering 15 workshops to over 400 stakeholders on how to use these new online career e-tools.

These resources are unique to the industry and will help anyone interested in the development of their workforce and career opportunities within the community services and health sectors. The roadshow was an amazing success and here is a brief review of the feedback …

And in regards to the new website resources participants said …

• Appreciated access to resources
• These career resources will be very helpful to use in schools
• Excellent presenters and resources - thank you
• Great level of info + showcasing resources
• Excellent resources
• Take away resources appreciated
• Website presentations and knowledge of resources exceeded my expectations
• Keep up this type of resource development
• Enjoyed the new sites, can use without going through NTIS
• Fantastic development of resources - thanks
• Extremely useful e-tools

Take a look at the new careers website for yourself at  http://www.pathwaysthatmatter.com.au/

The Internet can be a frightening place – one day your best friend and another your worst enemy. A school achievement to a business compliant, your footy team photo to a survey you took years ago – it can all be found in a single Google search. Therefore building your profile online is a vital part of your online brand strategy.



Here's five steps to help you get your name in lights when people search for you on Google or one of the other many search engines:

Step One – Correctly Index Your Website

Your website is your address on the web, whether online, brochure or a full retail shop – it’s often the first impression that someone will get about your business. Make sure each page of your site is correctly titled, has relevant and targeted information in the first paragraph and metatags or keywords added to the source code. You as the business owner or key stakeholder need to have a profile page too so that it will come up when people 'Google' your name.

Step Two – Start A Blog

Whether you share news about your day to day business or personal experiences you have, creating your own blog is a great tool towards online brand awareness. Keep your blog posts short, relevant and entertaining – always consider the reader and ask yourself ‘why would they care about this story?’.

Step Three – Create Your Online Network

Social and business network portals like FaceBook, Linked-In and Ecademy allow you to establish links with other people across the web. The power of each individual link is that it opens the door to their business and social links and then the links of the people as well – and so it goes on. In no time at all you can build a network of thousands – and all without leaving your computer or handing out a single business card. Once again you need to spend time on creating your profile for each platform and be sure to provide links to your business website and your blog.

 

Step Four – What’s All The Twitter About?

One of the fastest growing networks is Twitter – the online short text forum where you add your ‘Tweets’ about what’s going on in your world. From popstars to politicians, movie actors to business moguls – Twitter offers the opportunity to tap into someone’s personality. You can choose a style, theme or topic for your Twitter account and then attract followers to you as you add tweets from your laptop, email or even mobile phone.

 

Step Five – Spread The Love

As you build up your content you will start to create a library of articles, stories and interesting tips that can easily be shared with others. Try and get them published in someone else’s newsletter, posted on their blog, featured in an online publication or made available as a download – the more you have the more you reap in credibility over the web. One story in a leading online publication can help push you to the front page of Google on a specific search for you, your business, topic or area of expertise.

There is hardly anyone in this day and age who does not use Google or Yahoo or other search engines to find information and suppliers on the web. This means that there are real opportunities if you optimise your website for search engines.

Wikipedia defines Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as the process of improving the volume or quantity of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (or organic) search results.

Starting a new business but worried about your cash flow in those first few months? You can now get all your start up marketing requirements affordably with our new startup package. Our business startup packages get you underway with all your basic requirements, including logo design, website and stationery, allowing you to focus on launching your business straight away.

What makes a good landing page?

Translating English into plain English ...

Website design terminology can be quite confusing for many small business operators. But a basic understanding of technical terminology can help you make some good design decisions.