Why Your About Us Page Is Key To Your Success
For any company, B2B or B2C, the About Us page comes in second only to the Home page in importance. Social media revolution has taught businesses that people like doing business with whom they know. Leverage the power of this page to boost your credibility and provide a good glimpse into who you are and what your company is. Use it to build the trust that’s required to move forward.
Why Your About Us Page Is Key To Your Success
key to success
You Can Avoid Getting ‘Splogged’
Spam blogs all over the internet farm rich content from core business blogs from different directories and use them on their website. An “About Page” page helps to establish your credentials, thereby helping your audience to identify you as a bona-fide company and not as a spam blog site.
You Can Convince And Convert Your Visitors
Here’s your opportunity to deliver first-hand information about your company, directly from your mouth. People won’t have to deal with dubious information from other sources. Use this page to establish your business credentials, your standing in the industry and in society, your market reach and the quality of your product and service offerings.
How To Get The Most Out Of Your About Us Page
Divide The Content Into Sections
Do you expect your readers to read blogs of text that pass for articles? No. Then why put out blocks of text in your About Us page, just because you have that much to say? Divide up the content using suitable headers – Introduction, team, awards, testimonials, credentials and so on. Think of creative titles to each section to make it interesting.
Introduce Your Company
Introduce your company using simple but effective sentences. Take care not to bore your audience with your company mantra and pompous mission statements. No one wants to know your entire company history either.
Share Something About Your Business Experiences
Focus especially the factors that shaped your business, and the reasons why you operate in a particular market. Your story must relate the essence of your business and what you hope to achieve through it.
Share Your Business Credentials
Your potential customers want to know why you think you should be trusted with their business. Tell them how you started and with what objective. List the awards you’ve won, links for authenticity checks, testimonial links, links to association memberships, causes which you support and so on.
Use Images To Good Effect
When someone clicks your About Us page, they want to know you, the person behind the company. Be sure to post pictures of the top people in your company, pictures of your company headquarters if you have one. Pictures provide them with a peep behind the curtain as to who you are.
Set Expectations For Your Audience
Let your potential customer know what they can expect from their experience with you. Share your company’s core values and write about why you’re different – your unique processes, your USP, your value statement and so on. Put a human face to your company. Also link to inside content pages that’ll help people understand the quality, standards and level of ethics they can expect from you.
Help Them Connect With You
Do you have a Twitter account? Put it on your About Us page. Include links to your other social media pages as well. Make sure these are your business accounts. Potential customers always check out the social media presence and reach of businesses before investing in them.
Put Up Your Traffic and Sales Stats
This isn’t boasting – it’s just letting people know exactly how big your reach is. Put up live, constantly refreshing stats of your traffic volume, product sales in each category, rates of subscription and so on. When your potential customers see how many people trust you already, they’ll find it easier to invest in your product or service offerings.
Include Your Subscription Options
Just because your About Us page is not your landing page, it doesn’t mean you can use it to make conversions. Include your RSS subscription buttons, your newsletter sign up button and so on. You’ll be surprised at how effective your About Us page can be in converting people even before they’ve read your blog content. It all depends on how you come across on this page.
Include Social Media Buttons
Include Follow Us buttons for social networking sites, so that your visitors automatically follow your latest updates. Include Like buttons from Facebook and Twitter as well – this way your company will make it to the Like list on their personal social media pages. As you can see, you can use your About Us page not only to make yourself known but also to convert your leads and market your company and brand.
This article is contributed by Dean from conversion optimization company Invesp. Dean is a freelance writer and writes articles covering landing page optimization tips, improving website usability and testing.
7 Plug-in to Secure WordPress Blog
Defacing is the act of “detaching” a website by altering hosted one into one of their own. The fake webpage that pops up usually shows a provocative message or an introduction to the group that did the violation.
Wordpress
Though fairly common, defacing is actually just one kind from the relatively huge number of ways to breach website data security. What’s even worse is that even if your website isn’t exactly popular, a few mischievous souls might still attempt to mess with your website out of pure fun.
What can we do to protect ourselves from these cyber attacks? Well, if you own a WordPress blog or website, you could probably start by using some of these plugins.
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WP Security Scan – If you want a WordPress plugin that would help you suggest effective actions to be done to manually improve its security level, then WP Security Scan is for you. For example, it could suggest you to change passwords if it does not seem strong enough, or it could point out a few invulnerabilities in your database security. Works with WordPress version 3.0 up to 3.3.2.
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Bulletproof Security – Sometimes, significantly increasing your cyber defense in one specific part (that is frequently exploited) can be an overall efficient way to protect your website. The BulletProof Security plugin achieves this by giving your website strong protection against script injection-type attacks. Usage is simple an intuitive, although a few new terminologies and data entry terms might require a little research for the newbie blogger. Works with WordPress version 3.0 up to 3.4.
Despite this, we’re still seeing a steady increase in the number of serious data loss incidents, so why not avail VPN service for safe and secured internet browsing.
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Secure WordPress – Keeping the information on your blog nice and clean doesn’t just mean keeping things organized; it could also mean that your blog is devoid of any access points where non-admins could work and edit. Secure WordPress cleans and hides away most of your blog information by removing a few information from non-admins such as core update and plugin update information. This plugin is great for people who want to be sure that they are the only ones who can edit and change elements in their blogs. Works with WordPress version 3.0 up to 3.3.2.
So, if you want to protect your identity here’s an exclusive method iVPN.net. By availing these services your online identity is camouflaged behind anonymous IP address.
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Content Security Policy – This is another WordPress plugin that is specifically designed to detect and block content or script injection attacks. The method used by this plugin this time however is by giving admins the freedom to set specific sites that would allow scripts to run in their site. This means that non-registered content (that are not allowed by the set policy) are automatically blocked from loading. Works with WordPress version 2.9 up to 3.1.4.
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Login LockDown – Sometimes, preventing the simplest hacking methods could have a higher degree of efficiency. Login Lockdown helps your website prevent and block brute force attempts to obtain a password by recording the IP address and timestamp of each failed login attempt. If a certain number of attempts on the same IP range are detected within a short period of time, the plugin would block the login function for that IP range. The number of failed attempts and time period can be set in its options panel. Works with WordPress version 2.5 up to 2.8.4.
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NoSpam NX – Spam posts are some of the most annoying things that one would find in their website or blog. Though not really an actual security issue, it could get problematic if these automated spam posts could lead your visitors to malware infected websites. While the NoSpam NX may not look any different from any other anti-spam plugin, it is built on a presumption that spam protection efficiency could still be attained without sacrificing compatibility (due to altered comment field names). Works with WordPress version 3.0 up to 3.3.2.
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WP-DBManager – creating backups is an essential and fundamental way to ensure the data redundancy of your virtual system. Using the WP-DBManager plugin could help your websites preserve its database by providing an efficient platform that would help you update, optimize and repair databases intuitively. Of course, efficient data backup options are available. Works with WordPress version 2.8 up to 3.3.2.
Top 3 Secrets To Increase Website Traffic
Most of the people who are running their own websites tend to ask the question ‘how to increase the website traffic’. The simplest approach adopted by mostly people is to get the site ready, optimized and get it listed with the leading search engines. But, then again they are still stuck on the fact ‘how to increase the traffic’ as the traffic for their site is exceedingly low.
Traffic
There are a number of secrets via which you will be able to promote your products or services and generate tons of competent traffic. Following are some of the most cost effective and ‘must have’ website traffic generation secrets:
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Online Directories And Search Engines
Search engines such as Yahoo! and Google are considered as one of the prime sources when you are considering generating free traffic towards your site. Some of the vital points to take into account are;
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Creating a content that is keyword targeted
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Get your website optimized so that it can acquire high rankings with the search engines.
2. Email and Forum Marketing
Get your website indexed with the leading online directories as well as with the search engines.
Keep this fact in mind that all such people who have interest in what you have to offer are your potential customers. For this reason, you should opt- in the list building as it is an appropriate technique to implement a system that would help you bring more and more visitors eventually being your repeated customers.
If you are able to manage an opt-in List, you can consider yourself in the accurate position to follow. It is important for you to keep in touch with your customers and also keep them informed about the latest updates regarding your services or products and making sales.
If you have not compiled an opt-in list, this is the time when you should get started right away.
Forums are considered to be one of the primary gathering places for most of the Internet users where they look for tips, free advice as well as chat. Thus, you can make use of these forums for your own benefit, you will be able to get ultimate exposure which will eventually leads to highly targeted visitors towards your site.
One of the biggest blunders people do while using these forums is that they blatantly promote your websites or products. This actually violates the culture of the forums and also annoys users. What you are required to do here is only share your ideas and then leave your link or signatures to your site.
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Article Marketing
You can share your views and ideas about your business by simply writing about it. For instance, if you are running a jewelry shop, you can create content that provide users with tips on how they can clean their silver jewelry. You can get these articles posted not only on your website but also get them published on the leading article directories.
While you are posted the articles, you need to keep this point in mind that you are including an appealing signature line which could be helpful in sparkling the readers’ interest, which will result in continuous traffic generation to your site. You will not only be able to acquire an ‘Expert Writer’ status but also you will be able to enhance your Yahoo! and Google search engine rankings.
Last but not the least; you need to be patient here. This entire approach is not a one-time task. You are required to input continuous efforts and once you do, you will be able to make it happen.
Author Bio
Russel Browne wants to provide some useful tips which would be quite beneficial to smooth the way of Test4prep exam clearance. Would you like to go through GIAC Certifications guide self assessment tutorials.
Tablet versus Laptop versus Smartphones
In present times, one of the hottest and most frequently asked questions is which device between a tablet or laptop and Smartphones a person should never forget to carry. This issue has taken new dimensions due to the fact that the emergence of Smartphones shows that these types of phones can pretty much do the same things as laptops and tablets. For those who cannot pick a winner and have the money to buy all move around with all three.
Quite a number of people globally have been stating that Smartphones win this debate hands down. The reason for this preference is that these devices are becoming more sophisticated with each passing day. Some devices and brands have also been fitted with quite advanced hardware thus enabling them to be used in the same way that tablets and laptops are used. Even some bloggers have stated that they update their blogs from nothing other than their Smartphones.
Laptops vs tablet vs smartphone
Differences between Tablet vs Laptop vs Smartphones
Portability : Out of the three, its only the laptop that is the least portable. It’s portable though may cause a few inconveniences here and there in terms of finding enough place to fit it into.
Web Connectivity : The tablet wins in this regard due to the fact that it is always connected with Wi-Fi connectivity. Second to it is the Smartphones after which comes the laptop. The laptop needs external devices or Internet hot spots for the user to be able to enjoy these services.
Readability : This battle is mostly between tablet and Smartphones as the laptop seems to have a clear cut edge over these two. Tablets provide a better platform through which e-books and magazines. However, the best tool for reading still remains the lap top although with some types of books, the experience tends to be much better when done through the tablet.
Popularity : This is not an easy issue to determine. However, of note is that since the emergence of tablets worldwide, the number of laptops being sold has gone down quite significantly. Laptops now only make up 12% of the entire population of PCs worldwide down from close to 22% which they use to enjoy only a year or two ago.
Remote Access to Servers : This is one area where the laptop still emerges in the first position. It still remains the best tool through which to find uninterrupted access to your remote servers and desktops. Smartphones and tablets do not provide similar abilities.
Depending on where you are located and your line of work, the choice of which device to take or use is entirely your own. Some people are still of the belief that the device they started using is still miles ahead of whatever they have not used. However, for people who desire to keep pace with technological advancements, the best course of action is to have all the three. Each one has its own benefits and may prove handy where the other one is a bit inconveniencing to use.
Author Box
Ilya Elbert writes for several IT Consulting Phoenix and Computer Support Phoenix companies.
Apple iPhone 4S – Not Just A Phone, It’s The Whole World In Your Hands
Know About Mobile Phones
All the things and accessories that you use are the part of your personality and if you are high quality and best products in your use will help you to enhance your personality. Mobile phones now days are need of everyone and different people use different kinds of mobile phones according to the features they need. People prefer to have the smart phones that can serve them for multiple purposes. Apple iPhones are the series of mobile phones which are manufactured by the Apple Incorporated. These smart phones have different features in different models so that people may purchase them according to their needs.
Apple iPhone 4S – A fifth generation smart phone
Apple iPhone 4S 16 GB is the smart phone that has all the advanced features and it is the fifth generation of the iPhone that any one would love to have. Height of iPhone 4S is 115.5 mm, depth is 9.3mm, width is 58.6 mm, and weight is 140 gr. The iPhone 4S is made of glass and is flat from both sides front and back. Sides of the iPhone 4S are made of stainless steel and having the metal buttons and the camera is behind the phone.
Keep your data in your hands
You can get the 16GB memory capacity in iPhone 4S which is really a good amount of storage capacity and you can store much of the data in your mobile phone either games, songs, video clips or any other data. Digital camera of 8 megapixel in iPhone 4S helps you to capture all the memorable, funny and other events in your iPhone with a high quality. You can also use iPhone to record the good quality of video clips. 16 GB gives you a good space to save all this data in your iPhone.
Siri – Assist your voice commands
You can enjoy the multiple simultaneous touches. Retina display makes every thing appearing on your iPhone 4S just amazing as real because the pixel destiny of the retina is so high. Siri is the feature of iPhone 4S that assists in interpreting your voice commands that you give just by tapping the MIC and it will in return give you the auditory and visual feedback.
Efficient iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S has the around 200 hours standby time. Apple iPhone 4S is so efficient in browsing, gaming and whatever you are doing because it has dual-core A5 chip that makes it two times more powerful and deliver seven times fastest graphic. Apple iPhone 4S is a phone that has two antennas to transmit and receive so that your call quality could be better. Apple iPhone 4S is the phone that is used in around 200 countries and you can take your iPhone 4S anywhere you are traveling. You can take the prints of your emails, photos and other documents without connecting any cables and downloading any software. Just with few tabs you can get the printed copy of what you are viewing on your iPhone
Feature of iCloud
iCloud is the feature that helps you to manage and store all your stuff like mails, photos, videos, songs, documents, calendars, and contacts etc. iOS is the feature that is highly developed mobile operating feature. Through iOS you can get access to the biggest collection of mobile phone apps.
Evelyn Gragg is from Test4prep. Looking for Test4prep exam help? Let’s take advantage of Test4prep self paced Hp Certifications pass your it exams on first try.
Disadvantages of Removing Jailbreak From iPhone
There is quite a bit of discussion these days about the practice of jailbreaking your iPhone. First of all, let’s define what exactly we are talking about. Basically, the process means breaking free of the restrictions placed on your iPhone by whichever carrier you use. A jailbreak software application is downloaded to your computer and then transferred to your iPhone so that it can knock down the barriers imposed on the iPhone system of files. You are now free to modify away.
Freedom! Sounds great, right? Well, before I go all Braveheart on you, there are some possible negative aspects to jailbreaking. Some iPhone users have reported more crashes and other strange behavior after adding the jailbreak software. Some applications such as iBooks have locked out users after detecting that their devices had been jailbroken. Since jailbreaking often involves downloading software that may not have been scrutinized, it may be possible for malware or other undesirable to get in to your iPhone. To prevent this from happening, add security with one of the available apps. Perhaps, the biggest drawback to jailbreaking your iPhone is that Apple will not offer support to any iPhone that has been jailbroken, which is understandable. However, this problem is easily remedied. If you need to use Apple support, simply restore your device to its pre-jailbreak state. Follow the steps below to remove jailbreak:
Disadvantages of Removing Jailbreak From iPhone
- Start iTunes on your computer.
- Connect your device to the computer via a USB cable.
- Cancel or complete the automatic backup.
- Select your iPhone from the left column on your computer screen.
- Click on Restore.
- Your iPhone is now restored back to original settings and jailbreak is removed.
It is good to keep in mind that none of the jailbreaking process is necessarily permanent.
So why doesn’t everyone just remove the jailbreak app if it causes all these problems and pains it and it is so easy to get rid of it?
The reason that many iPhone users opt to continue using the jailbreak software is that the positives far outnumber the negatives. In other words, the disadvantages of removing jailbreak from your iPhone are much greater than the positives. Confusing? It does not have to be. Suppose that for some reason, you could only shop at one store for the rest of your life. That store might have a pretty good selection and all, but after awhile you are going to feel like you are missing out on all the possible choices. By jailbreaking your iPhone, you open up a whole world of possibilities. Your pre-jailbreak iPhone was previously limited to shopping at the Apple’s AppStore, which put many great apps out of your reach. Now you can shop wherever you want and choose from a seemingly endless number of very cool, practical and unpractical apps.
Still feeling uneasy about having jailbreak on your iPhone? Lighten up! Despite what some might say online, there is nothing immoral or illegal about it. Jailbreaking is simply adding features. It is risk-free and will not void the warranty. Remember, you can restore your iPhone anytime you want. Need more reassurance? Right now, 10 million plus devices have been through the jailbreak process. There are too many disadvantages to removing jailbreak from your iPhone.
I am Nadine Myrick from Pass Certification looking for pass certification exam assistance? Let’s take benefit of pass certification self-paced Exin Certifications training material and clear your IT certification on first try.
Facebook Traffic Tips and Tricks
How to drive traffic via Facebook
By now almost everybody has heard that Facebook is the next big thing in marketing, and that you shouldn’t have a blog without having a Facebook fan page. There is some truth to this, but the truth of the matter is that most people who set up a page on Facebook never manage to drive a significant amount of traffic to their site.
This doesn’t mean that Facebook is the wrong place to promote your site. It does mean that most people who try to promote their site on Facebook don’t know what they are doing. What’s the “trick” to capitalizing on this social network? These tips should put you in the right mindset.
Updates
facebook traffic
People need a reason to subscribe to your Facebook fan page, so make sure that you are regularly updating your page. Go too long without updating and your fans will forget about you.
By the same token, excessive updates are a definite no-no. Most people come to Facebook to talk to their friends. If you update once ever day, or every two days, you’ll give them something interesting or entertaining to share with their network. If you update twelve times a day you will overflow their stream and become a nuisance. This will cause them to either tune you out or “unlike” you.
Furthermore, not all updates should be links to your site. Some of them should be interesting pieces of content that you’ve found elsewhere on the web. Some should be interesting questions that spark conversations. Some should be polls, and others should just be one-liners that grab a lot of attention.
Interaction
The most important thing to realize about Facebook is that it is a two-way medium. Users can talk back, or even talk first. Success on Facebook requires you to get out of the broadcasting mindset. Rather than just producing content, it’s important to spark and join conversations.
Of course, the conversation has to start somewhere, and most of the time that isn’t going to start on your own page. The reality of the situation is that until people have heard from you they won’t join your page. If you have the money, Facebook ads can work, but one of the best ways is simply to seek out conversations and join in.
Visit Facebook pages that are related to yours and answer people’s questions, chime in with your input, and be helpful. This is one of the most effective ways to get the word out and grab some attention.
Once you have a big enough following on your own page, you should encourage interaction as much as possible with polls, questions, and provocative statements. Be open minded and accepting enough that you don’t put off too many people, but at the same time don’t hide your own opinions. People respect somebody who has genuine opinions and doesn’t come across like a politician.
Relationship Building
This is another key component of Facebook strategy that most bloggers and internet marketers fail to realize. In many ways, your relationships define who you are, at least in the eyes of your audience. The exact same site or fan page appears much more interesting and authoritative if it is introduced to you buy a prominent blogger, or by somebody you know personally.
When you build relationships with influential people, and simply with the kind of people who love to share your content with their friends, you are investing in your future. Facebook is one of the best places to accomplish this. In many cases it is worth taking these relationships into the realm of instant messaging, or even email, in order to give them a more “intimate” tone. This is one of the most important things you can do to boost your results, so don’t skip this vital step.
Citations:
Benjamin “Ben” Sawyer is a well known Internet marketing consultant and passionate blogger. He often writes about SEO and SMM, because he likes to share his knowledge with others. He is also a content writer for New York divorce lawyers , matrimonial law firm.
My 5 Commandments for Google Adsense
Introduction
As a professional blogger you earn income from multiple streams. Today any professional blogger who is very successful never have one source income. He may earn from showing ads by Google Adsense, or by showing ads of third party networks or even by selling some products.
lessons-learned-guest-blogging-for-income
I will talk here about the income which is going to come from Google Adsense. I have been using Google Adsense for a while now, and I must say it is a very good program. Google gives you complete control to adjust ads and help out various other complexities.
After working with Google Adsense for sometime I found out, there are certain commandments or rules that are important to succeed if you are working with Adsense. You must build your blog around these commandments, and then only you can leverage complete benefit of Google Adsense.
So let’s look at them one by one.
Choosing a Profitable Niche
Before you plunge into making money with Adsense, you have to decide what will be the exact niche of your blog. That simply means topic of your blog on which you will be writing posts every single day.
There are many niches on which your blog can be based. Some of them are Gadgets, domain names, Google products, banking, automobile, health, real estate, jobs, dating & Romance etc. Never assume that this is a complete list.
Well! I know complications around choosing a profitable niche out of them. Profitable simply means how much cents you are going to get when someone clicks on the ad. Gadgets ad can pay you more while dating & romance pays the least.
Hence you have to choose a niche keeping in mind that you can write blog posts about it continuously for months and years. At the same time it must be profitable.
Creating Content around the Niche
Now you have to create content based on the niche just you have chosen. In blogging you have to understand that it is a platform where you interact with your readers. You directly engage with them. However for a website you just have to put some articles and videos.
Blog is more dynamic that a website. So while creating content keep in mind that you must blog on daily basis. In fact two to three times in one day, it must look very lively. Content must justify your niche, it should remain targeted with primary keywords present in every post. So it will be easy for search engines to pull up your blog.
Remember your money entirely depends upon how good content is. Content is King!
Targeting Specific Countries
Third commandment is targeting countries. Creating content is not yet over. While creating content you have to keep certain things in mind. One is targeting particular countries. Why am I saying so?
Adsense ads that shows on your blog pays differently in different countries. Suppose your click is coming from countries like USA, UK or Canada then the cost per click is much higher. For example one click can pay you up to $1 to $4. However if Clicks are coming from countries like China, India or Indonesia then single click would wroth only 10 cents to 40 cents.
Therefore write blog posts that addresses the audiences of countries like USA or Canada.
Text Ads Only
Fourth commandment of Adsense would be about managing ads. You have to show ads in a way that it does not look an ad to visitors. It simply means that it should mingle with the content present on your blog. Ads must be very intuitive in nature, it must not irritate visitors.
Well! There are different types of ads. You can show only three ads on a single page. You can choose two ads that are large rectangles and one ad can be of 468 X 60 size. Show them as text ads because you get more clicks from text ads than image ads.
Ad Placements
My fifth and last commandment would be placement of ads. Placement is very important as it helps you to get more clicks, which mean more profit. In last point I recommended to choose two large rectangle ads (336 X 280) and one 468 X 60 ad.
Place one rectangle ad on the top of your blog post and another one outside at the right hand side of the screen. One 468 X 60 ad can go inside the blog post.
These placements are not final, you can keep experimenting with new positions. It may give you more clicks.
Conclusion
Finally I would conclude by giving you my 5 commandments for Google Adsense. First one is choosing right niche, second is creating good content around it, third targeting content to specific countries, fourth is choosing right ads and last one is right placement of those ads.
If you implement these points then you can make best out of Google Adsense program.
This post was written by Pritam Nagrale who writes about SEO, internet marketing and work from home ideas. If you’re looking for more outlets for making money online, then you must go to the blog Jobs8Home here you could find hundreds of best ways and tips to make money online.
Apple TV – what you need to know
A look at the new Apple TV and what you need to know
Apple TV was originally released in 2007 and in 2012 the third generation of this set-top box has arrived.
apple-tv
The popularity of subscription TV services delivered via cable and satellite might make it tough to see the advantages associated with owning the new Apple TV box.
However, Apple TV is designed to bring the best of internet video streaming into your living room so that you can enjoy it on your HDTV, which means that it is definitely relevant in today’s market.
Hardware
The latest technical features of the third-generation Apple TV box include an A5 processor that allows for full HD 1080p video playback and streaming quality where available.
In the past, the box would reach a maximum of 720p but now you will really be able to see the difference as pixels are pumped out in their millions from your living-room TV set.
The box itself is still small and light and easily able to fit into a typical home-entertainment set-up without getting in the way.
Software
Apple has added iOS 5.1 support to the latest Apple TV box, which means that it runs the same platform that powers the latest iPhone and iPad devices.
Of course, the functionality has been scaled back so that you can rent movies and access a limited number of video-related apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Vimeo for more streaming potential.
The interface has been slightly adjusted from previous iterations, but it remains relatively intuitive and should not tax either first-time users or Apple TV veterans.
Renting movies from iTunes is simple but still quite expensive, so most people will want to take advantage of the subscription streaming services in order to save money. After all, who wants to have to look into first time buyer mortgages to pay for their entertainment?
AirPlay
The enduring usefulness of AirPlay, which lets you stream video and audio from your iPhone, iPad, iMac or Windows PC direct to the Apple TV box, is sure to be a key selling point of this new device.
If you have a lot of Apple gadgets, then being able to instantly watch a video you are viewing on your handset via your HDTV will be a boon.
You can also access the media library stored on your PC in your living room via AirPlay, which makes the Apple TV box far more flexible than it seems at first.
Potential Problems
The fact that the Apple TV box still has no kind of TV tuner on board will be a potential gripe because it cannot realistically replace any other set-top box completely.
UK users will also be slightly vexed by the lack of an app for the BBC iPlayer service, which you can find on almost any other home-entertainment device at the moment.
However, if you love streaming video from the web and you want an inexpensive solution to bring this to your entertainment centre, then the new Apple TV offers all the right tools to get the job done.
Sam is a writer who focuses on tech and finance topics, so he regularly checks out the latest gadgets from Apple as well as covering the availability of first time buyer mortgages and other associated products.
Top User Tips For The iPod And iPhone
ipod Image by *ejk*
There’s no escaping the simple fact that Apple has changed the way we live. Whether it’s listening to music, watching movies or staying in touch with friends and family, our “i” devices are making it easier and fun to accomplish these tasks. Every time a new Apple device hits the market you can be assured that there will be long lines of happy consumers camping out overnight to make sure they can be the first to get their hands on the new gadget, whatever it is. These are the “hardcore” Apple users. For the rest of us, we’re happy to get our new devices and put them to use right away. Ironically, most iPod and iPhone users aren’t even aware of all the unique features and functions at their disposal.
With the iPod Touch, users have the ability to assign album artwork to each track of a particular album. However, there are some cases when the artwork doesn’t match up or you might prefer a different option. You can swap out your artwork choices by finding a cover on another website like Amazon then dragging and dropping that image into the iTunes artwork pane. The more music you add to your library, the greater the chances of creating duplicate tracks. This is easily fixed by selecting “view”, then “show duplicates”. You can delete those copies and make room for more music.
What About Playlists?
When it comes to playlists, you also have the ability to create a smart playlist. This is a playlist that you designate to include certain music that you define. For instance, it might be all blues or rock and roll bands or some other specific category. All you need to do is select “file”, then “new smart playlist”. A dialog box will appear asking you for keyword matches. Type in those keywords and your playlist will be generated. Beyond those special features, you’ll also want to make sure your device is protected by slipping on a thin iPod Touch case. This will help prevent scratches if you should drop your iPod.
On the iPhone side of things, many users aren’t aware that you can take a screenshot by simultaneously pressing the home and sleep/wake buttons. This is perfect when you want to capture a high game score to share with friends. For typing messages or email, if you double tap the shift key, you’ll activate the caps lock. As with the iPod, you can protect your other Apple device by using thin iPhone 3GS cases. These devices were all meant to be carried around and shuffled in and out of pockets. It only makes sense that you should provide an extra layer of protection with a thin iPod Touch case or thin iPhone 3GS cases.
The coolest new Shades cases for iPod Touch and Shades cases for iPods! Extremely thin, light, and Stylish, and provide full screen protection!