No Matter What, Add Passion!

As the first video of this kind, this new updated version is packed with statistics and numbers.

A must see for everybody, not only social media nerds…

I am surprised how often people don’t know those very usefull google search operators. You don’t have to be a SEO or other wep expert to make them useful to you.  They will narrow your search results and they will get more relevant. In short, you will save time and nerves by using these little helpers provided from google.

If you want to optimize your page in the Google SERPs, these tools help you in different SEO purposes, for example diagnose seo issues, identify relevant keywords, analyse your neighborhood, etc. etc.

These (German) Slides are part of a full day SEO – Coaching I did last week :) No rocket science, but from the very Beginning of how Search Engines work. Great if you don’t know much about SEO, then you get a broad overview of how and what you can do yourself (on your Site/On-Site) to improve your Google Ranking.

Off Page Optimization / Link Building etc. was not part of this session.

There are a lot of internet related events lately and this made it difficult for us to keep track of all of them. To make a better overview, Flo an I decided to create a new site which does nothing else then collect (and present) alle German (and closer European) Events.

You can find events as a list or as an iCal calendar, which you can import to your iCal compatible client (Outlook 2007, iCal, iPhone…)

www.webeventtermine.de

or follow us @ twittter: www.twitter.com/webevents (you can send us missing events here)

I’ve created a seperate blog for our trip to Indonesia. Caro and I are traveling from Singapore to Indonesia, visiting several places there, moving from Surabaya to the east. If we’ve got some time left, we’re trying to visit Malaysia for a few days, before coming home end of January.

Click HERE to visit our travel-blog, you’r going to find some funny stories and pictures (soon).

The pictures were taken on a Sunday this month, October 2008. Barcelona has lots of Street Art, but at Sundays it uncovers all its gems. Then you see that Barcelona is literally covered with graffiti all over. Why? Because most shops close at Sunday and lower their blinds. That’s where most of the artwork is hidden the whole week.

Have fun with 1,5 minutes of my favorite works.

[Update] I’ve added some of the shown pictures in high res at my Flickr account.

[Update 2] Remember, to watch the video in HD you have to activate that option inside the video.

In addition to my last post about Michael Wesch video about how “The Machine is Us/ing Us” I want to recommend one of his newer videos. Dr. Wesch presented “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube” at the Library of Congress on June 23, 2008. The video is about one hour long, and it goes deep into the mechanics of society and how the Internet is transforming it/us.

Michael Wesch is talking about “Digital Natives” (Wikipedia: “A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3″). He points out the difference of how this generation is growing up with a computer humming by their bed stands, their new ways of perceiving and connecting due to the Internet and new media.

So without spoiling any more, watch the video if you liked the last one. You’re going to enjoy this one, I promise :)

This movie is pretty old and was seen millions and millions of times, so there is a big chance, you’ve seen “The Machine is Us/ing Us” before. If you’re one of them: Sorry to bore you…

I stumbled over this clip today and allthough it’s 1,5 years old, it’s still strikingly insightful. And for any chance, that there is still someone out there who didn’t see it yet, I just have to share it once again. Please give me a comment, if you are watching this clip the first time OR if you’re enjoying it to see it yet once again :)

Michael Wesch, a Professor at Kansas State University, has produced this video early 2007 to accompany a yet-to-be-released academic paper about the web 2.0 phenomenon and posted it on Youtube the 31th of Januar. Because of the many copies all over the net, a viewcount is difficult to do, but a quick count resulted in at least 10 Mio views.

This is a follow up to my first “Best of iPhone Apps List“.

I split the list in 3 groups: Apps, which survived this update of my best of list, the new ones and those which are out. I am also making a difference between true iPhone applications and webapplications. So first let’s see which apps from the old list made it again on this list?

The Survivors:

• NetNewsFire
  NetNewsFire is my favorite RSS Newsreader and one of my most used apps. It syncs with my desktop reader and has just all features I need.
• Instapaper
  Offline Reader I am using often, especially now that i am in Spain without 3G data roaming. With Instapaper i allways have some interessting articles with me, which i can read in a spare minute.
• Zenbe
  One of many, many ToDo apps for the iPhone. It is very basic and thats what i like. You can create different lists and you can share them with friends.
• Twinkle
  My favorite Twitter client. Works just fine, so I stopped checking out other twitter clients.
• Tuner
  Internet-Radio application, where you can choose between thousands of streams. Just by searching for genre or artist.

Newcomer Apps:

• Fring
  Multi protocol instant messenger for Skype, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM and SIP/VoIP. First app which combines all networks i need. In addition it allows me cheap VoIP calls outside of Germany, as long as i have WiFi connection.
• Facebook (Me on Facebook)
  The new Version 2.0 of their iPhone app is a huge step to the better. Now it’s truelly funny to log on while on the go.
• Datacase
  Easy and powerfull tool to convert your iPhone to your personal WiFi-storage. Connect with every device you want to your iPhone and access your files (after a security check). There is even a “dropbox” where your friends can copy files into, but no one can list this directory or download from it. It supports all major file formats from ms office to pdf, all kinds of pictures, music files and videos… so you not only carry all your documents, but you can open and read them anywhere you want.
• WiFinder
  WiFiFinder is a WiFi Scanner, which lists all WiFi Networks near you. It checks if they are open and when positive, it checks if there is internet access. Optional it scans every xx seconds and alarms you, as soon as it finds an internet connection. Perfect when traveling. Just leave this app running while walking through the streets.
• HotSpots
  This app is using an online directory of mostly german WiFi Hot Spots. It uses the GPS to show you the nearest WiFi from your location.
• Last.fm (Me on Lastfm.de)
  “Social Music Streaming Plattform”. It learns your music taste and after some listening time, it plays only music you really like. Awesome! The reason, why the the last.fm client for iPhone wasn’t on my first “best of list” was because this version was one huge bug and barely unusable. Allthough the idea and user interface were very nice from the beginning. And now with the latest update it runs smoothly and reliable. With Tuner and Last.fm there is no need to waste place on your harddrive for music.

Newcomer Webapps (not in App Store):

• FriendFeed (Me on FriendFeed)
  Friendfeed is a great service for sharing and discussing your online activities with your friends. Since they launched a special user interface for the iPhone you can use this service perfectly on your mobile device.
• Flickr (Me on Flickr)
  Flickrs new User Interface for iPhone is better then every other Flickr app, i’ve seen before. exposure might have some additional features, but i don’t need them most of the time.
• Verkehrsinfo
  Free german traffic reports and alerts. You are getting real time traffic and general road conditions over a convenient, easy to use Web-UI. Very helpfull.

Kicked Out:

• Evernote
  Still an awesome application, which i still love to use. Very hard descission to put this app off the list.
• Apple Remote
  As long as I don’t have a static workstation or apple tv to control remotely, i don’t need it very often. My Macbook Pro is always close, so no need for Apple Remote. The value of this app defers extremley depending on your equipment and livestyle.
• Palringo
  Superseded by fring because of Skype support.
• Truphone
  Superseded by fring because of VoIP support.
• Exposure
  Superseded by new Flickr Webinterface. A native App would be nicer, but the new Flickr Webinterface extra for iPhone ist even better then Exposure.
• Shozu
  I liked the concept, but in the end i didn’t use it any more. Other apps do a better job.

Hope you can use this information. Let me know, if you have tried any of these apps and how they worked out.

[UPDATE: HD is deactivated by default and there is no option to change that. So if you want to see it in HD, you have to activate yourself by hitting the HD-button inside the video.]

The Botanical Garden – Jardí Botànic – in Barcelona is located in Montjuc, the same area where the Olympic Games were hosted 1992. It is a huge garden with collections of Mediterranean plants from all over the world. I enjoyed a wonderful sunny day walking between those unknown plants… perfect motifs for shooting some photos. In the video a share my favorites, mostly macro photos.

Duration: 1:14 Min.
Format: 16:9
Resoultion: 720p
Codec: H.264

Apple sent out an invitation today for a special event october the 14th and the invitation looked like this picture. So Steve is going to show us the new MacBooks and MacBooks Pro. Finally!

Hmm… looks like, i can’t hide, that i became an Apple fanboy. :-)

[via Engadget]

Fring is out and you can download it now officially over the App Store. Fring is the first Applications which supports Skype on the iPhone, besides many other networks:

• ICQ
• Google Talk
• MSN – Windows Live Messenger
• Yahoo Messenger
• AIM
• Twitter
• and again SKYPE!

In addition you can call using 3 different options. Call by:

• GSM
• SIP / VOIP
• Skype Out Call

First tests are promising. Everything I tested worked very well, but i will do extensive testing of all fring features tomorrow and update this article. Die interface is easy to understand. Everybody should be able to use fring in under 5 minutes.

As Sykpe is my primary instant messenger client, having no app on the iPhone for that service was painful gap. Thank you fring for this application, but especially for the Skype support.

[update]

Still, i am very satisfied. I don’t had any major problems. No crashes, no dropped calls. Till now, this is definitely the best multi protocol instant messenger for the iPhone. But there is also some potential to optimise:

• I don’t see the network of the contacts in my buddy list. A small skype, icq or gtalk icon would do a perfect job.
• It seems, that battery usage with running fring is much higher, than without.
• Twitter is getting pretty annoying, because you can’t switch the “ring tone” for single channels off. I deactivated twitter, until this option is here.
• No VoIP over 3G, because of the carriers. Jailbreak users can be happy, there is a 3G enabled version around.
• Some other users report lag and echo when talking over Skype, SIP or in general VOIP. I can’t confirm that.
• no Jabber support (beside of Google Talk)
• an incoming gsm call will disconnect any fring calls.

We all know Gary Vaynerchuk. The famous wine (video-) blogger and owner of Wine Library. He is a perfect example of being passionate about what he is doing: He calls himself a “Social Media Sommelier“. In his keynote-talk at O’Reilly Web2.0 Expo he not only talked about the relation between passion and success, but he did that with so much passion, that you have to see yourself.

One of my favorite quotes:

“Way to many People are doing stuff, they hate. Please stop doing that. there is no reason in 2008 to do shit you hate. None. promise me you won’t!” (Gary Vaynerchuk, 2008 O’Reilly Web2.0 Expo)

Watch the video here:

Gary Vaynerchuk is talking about “Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape“. With over 450 daily wine shows with an audience of at least 80.000 every day he successfully transformed his parents wine-merchant family business in New Jersey from a 4.5 millions to a 60m-a-year enterprise. He uses a lot of web2.0 / social media to promote his brand and to get/stay in touch with his audience/clients: facebook, twitter, pownce, linkedin, viddler, myspace…

What do you think about his approach? Do you have other examples of inspiring, charismatic people who love what they are doing,  putting all their passion into it?