YUBE is live !

Volo Designs Releases YUBE for iPhone & iTouch !

It's official  Volo got the green light from Apple today for the YUBE - our augmented reality video player for stationary exercise.

The YUBE uses actual video footage for enhancing stationary exercise - The faster you exercise the faster your travel through the video - Travel the world without leaving the gym - use it with you big screen TV, projector, or head mounted glasses.

Check it out in iTunes, at the app store, or preview it at Apple -

Here is a short demo:

Wordpress & Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

We are in the process of developing a web presence for our Volo YUBE product, our virtual reality stationary exercise system.

One of the important parts of this presence is to initiate a web forum for our users to interact and provide us with feedback.  Now typically we'd set up a simple blogging site and link it to our web site.   But today more and more time is spent with the social sites and it has become mandatory to have a presence on these sites like facebook, linkedin and twitter.  Managing all those sites, along with the main web site, and the daily update to each has become a significant effort.

To reduce this effort we are setting up a Wordpress site as the main hub of our web presence and then using the built in RSS functionality of Wordpress to integrate our updates across all those social sites with one click of the button.

We heard a good presentation at the A2LM by the wholebraingroup on this very topic - check them out for more details.

Stay tuned for more.

Tim

ATT Gaining Market Share for Google adWords

We've noticed an interesting thing - ATT (Yellow Pages) is managing Google Adword campaigns for their customers, and their market is growing.

Now you'd think ATT would be somewhat against adwords, since adwords directly compete and are soon to dominate the yellow pages, but instead they have started managing their customers adword campaigns.

At first this seems strange but in the eyes of their typical customer it makes sense - they have been working with their yellow page rep for years and they trust the ATT name.

What they don't see is the conflict of interest, and the costs that ATT is charging them.

Per our analysis - ATT is charing a flat rate per month for a guaranteed number of clicks.  The price just under $3 per click (this include the campaign management fee - I'd say they are getting quite a hefty fee at that).  If ATT does not hit the number of clicks guaranteed then they provide the service free of charge until that number is reached.

Takes all the beauty out of Google's whole auction and analysis programs.  ATT has got to have enough slop in their pricing structure so they absorb the high cost of expensive keywords at the expensive of inexpensive keywords.

Makes you wonder what their thinking, but never underestimate a force like ATT.

Tim

Price Book for Googlewize - adWords, PPC, Analytics

We've just added a price book for the majority of our Googlewize services.

These include adWords PPC, Analytics, Local Listing, and Google Apps.

We had gotten some feedback from one of our clients that indicated a price book provided added clarity.

Not every job / project will fit into this framework, it does provide a starting point for dialog.

Enjoy,
Tim

Google Tools for Business - Good Book

Now I'm the first one to say - never buy a book that has "for dummies" in its title but I've got to make an exception on this one -Google Business Solutions All-in-One For Dummies-  This 800 page book covers a lot of ground. Goes thorough Google Apps and Local Listings, along with blogs and Google Ads - Most of it is presented in a very easy to use manner. We recommend it. Although we think you'd be better served by contacting us at Volo Designs and getting some custom tailored advice on Google tools this book is a good place to Start. Also check our site out at Googlewize for additional videos and information on Google Tools.

Tim

Volo Kite Pump - Getting Faster Soon

If you are a kiteboarder you may have run across our kite pumps. They use compressed air or CO2 and can fill a 12M kite in about 30 seconds www.pumpkiteup.com .

Well thanks to Google Sketchup and the newest generation of desktop printers we are closing in on an even faster and more efficient design.

Stay posted.

Tim

Volo Designs - Come See Us

Volo's got a new site up -

Go visit and let us know what you think - Volo Designs www.volodesigns.com .

All the additional videos and tutorials are still at www.googlewize.com but we wanted to give the front end a bit more zing for the folks looking at improving adwords performance, or their local business center visibility.

Enjoy,
Tim

Local Mapping from Google

The Local Business Center at Google has been very busy.

We are seeing more and more companies increase their visibility through the Google Mapping.

Google is now putting up the local 10 map in some instances with no apparent geographical input from the user.  We see this with services more then anything.

Having problems getting your visibility improved, contact us at www.volodesigns.com.

Tim

Googlewize Taking Off !

Google's tools continue to impress us.
We like to think of AdWords as the yellow pages of today.

Some folks are looking at the Google Search Appliance - Which I can understand for companies that have large internal databases they need to index and search, but for most small businesses why not skip the $30,000 box and get Google Apps.  You can move all your stuff, files, share point content and the like out to Google's cloud and then you get the indexing for free along with a great sandbox for all your corporate stuff.

Need help setting it up - call us !

Magic Jack - Eliminating Cell Phone Charges

Magic Jack has just introduced an updated Magic Jack at the CES show - this version will eliminate cell phone minuets for your cell phone when your within cell range of your Magic Jack.


By providing a GSM antenna, built into the Magic Jack, all your cell traffic will go out the Magic Jack pipe and skip the whole cellular network, eliminating your per min charges.  Think of it as installing a little cell tower onto your home or office broadband pipe.


The device which plugs into your computer detects when you and your cellphone come within a close range and to make a call you must enter a code into your phone which links it to the femto Jack much like the linking that happens between your Bluetooth device and your phone. Once your cell phone and said device or connected you can place calls and instead of using your minutes from your cell carriers plan because the FemtoJack routes them through your Internet connection


This is a slick breakthrough and one we will see repeated by others if the FCC doesn't squash this innovation.

Stay tuned for more updates shortly.