There are many different kinds of mobile apps you can offer to your users including games, productivity apps (i.e. specialized calculators, to-do lists, etc.), educational apps (i.e. industry dictionaries, reviewers and exercises, trivia, language tutorial, etc.), lifestyle apps (i.e. ticket store, real-time train/plane schedules, recipe book, yoga, etc.), and more. The point is that whatever industry you belong to, whatever topics you usually touch on, you’ll probably be able to think of an app that would be useful to your users.

The problem with this, however, is that it does take significant investment to come up with a good app. If you don’t have the resources to deliver a good app, do rethink your options before going ahead because you might be better off with a much simpler app that delivers in terms of quality (no buggy apps please!) instead of a potentially excellent and innovative app that ends up half-baked. Remember, first impressions last and you want your users to tie your name with a sound usable mobile app so that when you do release a bigger mobile app, you won’t be hard-pressed selling the idea to your existing user base, and hopefully in selling it to other users who most probably be basing their decisions on the feedback from your users now.

Image credit: Mobile App Developments

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Calling cards hold benefits for everyone, not just for travelers, as they’re mostly considered. The design of modern calling card systems makes them highly versatile and applicable to a wide variety of situations and needs. If you need free calls, for example, a calling card is exactly what you need to get those sweet benefits. Bear in mind that every type of card would come with its own specific conditions though, so make sure you get one that suits your needs – e.g., figure out who you most often talk to and which cards offer deals for their carrier, and so on.

The free calls you’ll be getting from your calling card can often net you a lot of money in savings – but be careful with how you use those cards, as it can easily turn out to be a pointless venture if you’re not using their potential to the fullest.

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Everyone and their mom is blogging these days – what sets you apart from the rest of the pack? This is not an easy question to answer, and the chances are that you will have to put a little more effort in order to get that edge. One of the things that you ought to do is to seek out a good data center service provider to host your own blog instead of relying on the hosting provided by a free blogging platform.

Take a look at these three compelling reasons why you ought to do so.

Control Appearance/Design

When you host your own blog, you have the advantage of gaining more control over its appearance and the design. Naturally, you want your blog to be as professional as it can be, and you want to have your own mark stand out. With a free blog network, the chances are that you will face restrictions in this regard.

Generate more revenue

Free blog networks come with a lot of stipulations. While you will be able to run a “full” blog on them, you might not be able to have as much access as you can from potential revenue sources. Hosting your own blog will open up so many more opportunities.

Promote your brand

This is linked directly to the first advantage. If you have your own domain and your own host, you will be able to establish your brand more fully. Compare this to having a generic URL and template/design attached to a free blog platform.

If you are serious about gaining that blogging edge, you really ought to get your own blog host. With all the choices available, it will not really cost you that much. More so, the benefits that you gain will outweigh the cost.

Photo via andyp

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Now you have the chance to not only read online books but you can access any PDF file you download. The PDF to EPUB converter saves you a lot of time and effort by converting PDF files available to be formatted into your own electronic books reader. The great thing about this program is that the PDF still retains its original features, so you don’t have to worry about using a different program to read the file. In addition, the interface of the program is very intuitive. The design is so simple you can start converting PDF to EPUB right away.

The program features are very unique and allows you to save up on your EPUB’s memory space. Let’s say you only need to read the first couple of pages of the PDF file, you can set the number of pages that need to be converted into the EPUB just by selecting the specified pages. Also, if you are a multilingual reader, no need to worry about translating errors because the PDF to EPUB converter suits different languages, such as English, French, German, even Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

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ICANN members will also deliberate on whether to allow the full internet addresses, that is including the name preceeding the “.com” to be written in other scripts not based on Latin letters.

If you’re in a country where English is not the primary language, you might as well think of the coolest domain name that you can possibly think written in your own language’s scripts.

“This is the biggest change technically to the internet since it was invented 40 years ago,” Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, said, calling it a “fantastically complicated technical feature”.

Mr. Thrush is hoping the ICANN member will approve such change in domain naming. ICANN’s new president and CEO Rod Beckstorm is hoping that the first domain names in non-English scripts will go live sometime in 2010.

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If you’re a GoDaddy customer planning to register a new domain, you might want to try using the new GoDaddy GeoDomainMap tool. GeoDomainMap uses Microsoft’s Bing Maps in providing a map-based interface for exploring available domain names with location information included in the name. This tool will be most useful if you’re planning to start a location-based fan site  or a blog for your local business.

The tool works something like this – you type in a location first, then a keyword that you want to use. The GeoMapTool will then search for all the available domains containing the keywords you used appended with the location. The location name is either appended before or after the keyword.

If you’re wondering why GoDaddy just return available domain names with associated location, that’s because the GeoDomainMap tool will use this to triangulate the current location and nearby location to represent them on the Bing map.

When you hover on the balloon markers displayed on the Bing map, a pop-up will appear showing you some details as well as a link to the GoDaddy domain purchasing page. You can also opt to add the domain name to your wishlist.

GeoDomainMap is a pretty cool tool that serves a good purpose. You may try it here.

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My iPod Touch is almost always on standby mode, which means it still eats through the battery with my use if it in a single day, though sometimes much less. Powering the device has become a little bit of a joke for me as I recently took my laptop with me somewhere just so I could make sure my iPod Touch got recharged.

I have started using it for a variety of different things outside of just blogging, but the time savings it has created has made me a bit more productive.

I use the iPod Touch as a watch, constantly checking the time, and comparing it against notes I have made in Notes and To Do’s.

Since the iPod is in standby mode, it is quick to turn on and I can usually check my e-mail faster on the Touch than on waiting for my laptop to boot up, making my boot up time in the morning a bit more productive.

I also use it to check the stock markets and whatnot as I like to keep abreast of what is going on in the economy, especially related to the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate since I am paid in US currency.

I have also been using it as a way to keep active on Twitter, which is something that I didn’t really intend, but the limited typing space for messages makes the iPod Touch a great Twitter interface.

I have also bookmarked various web pages related to my sites statistics and it makes finding out how my sites are doing a one click event, no matter where I am, which has actually let me know about some downtime I had on one of my other sites, long before I would have otherwise realized it.

As for stuff outside of blogging, I have discovered how useful the Touch is for watching videos while on my long walks between my home and a local restaurant where I work sometimes, and I really enjoy lying in bed listing to Last.fm on it, much to my wife’s unhappiness.

I also use the iPod Touch for managing money and groceries, with Grocery iQ and Pennies. Both are great applications, though I find myself not sticking to inputting everything into Pennies as often as I should, though I don’t blame the application for that.

So with my enjoyment of having an iPod Touch increasing, would I now say that it is a great blogging device? Well, no… I would still recommend something like one of the many “netbooks” that are out with a decent keyboard, and maybe a 3G card so you can have ubiquitous wireless Internet access.

Did I mention there are some fun games for killing time on the iPod touch? When I don’t have Internet access, I find myself playing Sudoku, Lux Touch, and messing around with AquaForest. They are all fairly interesting, and great for keeping your mind off how long a walk has taken.

Donators

Thanks again to everyone listed below for their help in reaching my goal of getting an iPod touch.

Ryan Caldwell of College Crunch
Mark Wood, My Cousin
Jeff Chandler of Jeffro2pt0
Chris Garrett of Authority Blogger
Yan Fortin of Geeks are Sexy

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Inputting large amounts of data into the device is a pain in the rear, and not something I plan on using the device for too often, but jotting down web addresses, and scheduling was very useful. It is almost a full blown PDA, meaning I can use it to organize my life, and I love that aspect of it.

Connect it to WiFi and you have a very helpful device in getting directions, sending out Twitter messages, and keeping track of e-mail. I still wish it had a digital camera like the iPhone so I could have taken some images of people, booths and business cards, but I guess I will just have to carry around a digital camera, once I buy a new one.

The iPod Touch seems to be quite a useful device, in a very small form factor. While I don’t think it is as good as some of the smaller ultra-portable laptops that have come out it is definitely a nice replacement for my much heavier laptop when I expect to move around often and only need e-mail, Twitter, and instant messaging access.

I actually didn’t bring my laptop to Blog World Expo on the last day and found the battery life of the iPod Touch to be more than sufficient, but didn’t find that I recorded much information on the device pertaining to the event. I did use it to track down certain people through Twitter, and take down names, e-mails and web addresses, but it just wasn’t the same, and so I am missing out on a whole day worth of event related notes.

Would I recommend the iPod Touch as a blogging platform for anyone? Probably not, as it can’t easily be used to create decent length blog posts in the same way a laptop can and without the ability to take video or even simple pictures, it loses out on the multimedia blogging abilities of other potential devices.

I would recommend that bloggers take a look at the sub-twelve inch notebooks being put on the market today as a great portable blogging device, as the iPod Touch, while a great internet connected device, can’t make blogging easier. On the flip side though, it will help keep you organized, and there is never anything wrong with that.

Donators

Thanks again to everyone listed below for their help in reaching my goal of getting an iPod touch.

Ryan Caldwell of College Crunch
Mark Wood, My Cousin
Jeff Chandler of Jeffro2pt0
Chris Garrett of Authority Blogger
Yan Fortin of Geeks are Sexy

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

I checked out the quick install instructions and found out that I needed to update my iTunes to the latest version, go figure. The iPod almost feels like a toy. It is wider than the Flip Ultra, a video camera on the go that many bloggers love and that I recently received, but thinner and close to the same overall length. It is very surprising to experience how small it is, despite having played with other people’s iPhone a few times in the past.

Once iTunes was updated, I plugged it in and went through the “installation” pages in iTunes to make sure it was set up properly with my computer. Turning on the iPod, I realized it had a full battery and was ready to go. There is nothing worse than getting a new gadget and realizing that you have to wait overnight to be able to use a shiny new gadget.

Looking at this from a blogger perspective, I laughed at the home screen of the device. Movies, music, etc… Who would need any of these things? I quickly moved all of the things that I felt were non-essential to the second page, leaving the home page more than half empty for me to add in applications that would help me in my day to day blogging.

Over the next few weeks, I will be going over the included applications, applications I have downloaded from the App Store, and my continued thoughts on the overall device. I will also be researching the jail breaking process and if it provides a better extended application experience.

For all of you not interested in these posts, I will be spreading them out over a long period of time, so that I keep pushing out great blogging related content over the coming weeks, and I will be covering Blog World Expo next week, so expect a fair number of posts on that event both during and after it runs.

Donators

Thanks again to everyone listed below for their help in reaching my goal of getting an iPod touch. I now have one, and can start convincing all of you to buy one too.

Ryan Caldwell of College Crunch
Mark Wood, My Cousin
Jeff Chandler of Jeffro2pt0
Chris Garrett of Authority Blogger
Yan Fortin of Geeks are Sexy

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Thanks again to the great people that helped make this happen.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.