Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

There are rumours that Facebook will launch a music service next month. Spotify, MOG and Rdio are also rumoured to be involved. The idea is that Face book will not directly host the music but rather use a platform for media content - similar to the applications and games platforms they presently use.

We have also heard that Facebook intend to stream movies, this is unlikely but the f8 developer conference on the 22nd Sept will enlighten us.

Amazon are set to unveil the launch of their newly designed website. The design has been especially adapted to appeal to tablet and PC owners. Not hugely exciting news but will be interesting to see what they've done - I imagine it was a daunting task.

Adobe have introduced the beta version of Adobe Muse – a way to build websites easily. You can design and publish your site - all to the latest web standards – with little effort.

We are going to give this a go, at least to see how it works. Personally I think this software works best for smaller portfolio type sites and maybe a bit too simple for the professional designer and a little difficult for the amateur wanting to get more features out of the box without having to learn too much.

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.  Since 2003 WordPress has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

Please take a look at our prices at http://www.lvmedia.co.uk/wordpresswebsitedesign

 

We are the largest  pay monthly web design company in the UK. No other web design company will beat our prices we also offer free UK support. Pay Monthly Websites provides affordable website solutions for your website needs, all at a monthly fee. Our range of website packages allows you to choose the website that you need. Each is a completely integrated solution that includes hosting, web design and construction.

"Apple is using iCloud to retain its dominance in the Smartphone and tablet markets amid fresh competition from devices powered by Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software. The new service may improve how users can access content across different Apple devices, keeping customers from defecting to rivals" said Frank Gillett, with Forrester Research Inc. Excerpt taken from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/apple-s-jobs-to-unveil-icloud-storage-service-to-deflect-google-s-android.html

Apple’s new iCloud service will initially be free although after a while a charge will be introduced. I've heard this could be upto and around £15 per month. I like the idea but I'm not sure I really need it...I'm happy to pay for my music, but I quite like the old school way - adding it to my collection at home!

I wonder if you can transfer from Amazon or Microsoft’s cloud service if you want to switch - would they allow you to transfer your 1tb music collection over to Icloud? More to the point - how do you transfer 1tb worth of data between servers without connections loss, corrupt files and within a decent amount of time...not really up for spending a few days for my music collection to transfer across! Hmmm, this means I need to be very sure which cloud service I go for as I may be permanently stuck with one of them!!

Quick note: I may be a little suspicious but the worlds big record labels who will be involved are very keen to stop piracy (naturally), does this mean the iCloud will be fully  secure and perhaps do away with piracy....I doubt it but It'll be interesting to find out. I think the amount of involvement by the music industry will be a good clue.

Google's +1 button has allowed users to recommend content to their friends and contacts directly from Google search results and adverts, however now the Internet gets the button, and select publishers and site owners can embed the button on their sites.

On partner sites the button's functionality is similar to the way you interact with a Facebook's Like button. When you see a +1, you can recommend a product, article, or other content to your friends by clicking it and your Google connections search for related content, they will see your +1’s in their search results.

+1 is as simple on the rest of the web as it is on Google search. With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world. The next time your connections search, they could see your +1’s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful.

For more information try - www.google.com/+1/button

or www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters

Last May Magento announced Magento Mobile for iPhone, a powerful application that enables merchants to create unique, branded experiences for their customers on their iPhones.  In that time companies such as The North Face and Easton Bell Sports have built custom-designed mobile experiences that extend the power of their Magento stores to the iPhone.

Now Magento is expanding Magento Mobile to the iPad and Android platforms.  Like the iPhone version, Magento Mobile for iPad and Android enable merchants to create branded, native storefront applications that are deeply integrated with Magento’s market-leading eCommerce platform.  Now merchants can provide the best shopping experience possible to customers based on the device they are using.  And of course, Magento provides an industry-leading mobile web shopping experience for any customer that does not have your native application installed.

Who would have thought years ago that in 2010 tens of millions of worldwide Internet surfers will go online from their mobile devices, whether for everyday browsing or just for checking an email and so on? With mobile Internet getting more and more popular nowadays, it is a must that each and every website design firm create mobile-friendly websites in order to grab a piece of this market, whether we are talking about US companies or UK website design firms.

This article will showcase the best practices developers should use when creating a website that can be accessed from mobile devices as well.

1.      iPhone is not the only mobile device used for browsing

One of the biggest mistakes website designers are making is to check only with the iPhone if the website is perfectly viewable. they forget that the iPhone is not the only mobile device used for browsing. Forget about online emulators and check the website with  5-10 different mobile devices in order to get a perfect picture of it.

2.      Use sub domains for mobile version

Before creating the mobile version you might consider asking the client what visitors really search when they are on your website. When browsing from mobile people usually want to browse fast and find the exact information they are searching for, so it is imperative to clean the unnecessary content and keep it simple.

3.      Use small images

The smaller an image is the faster the site therefore better visitor satisfaction. Again, mobile users usually do not have the time to wait too much for an image to be downloaded so keep in mind that optimising images when creating a mobile website is a priority.

4.      Frames, cookies and Flash

While the iPhone has cookie support and so on, as we said above, not all people will use an iPhone for browsing favourite pages. Try to avoid using Flash, cookies and frames and also avoid fancy fonts that most cell phones cannot read.

5.      As always, WordPress

WordPress users always had an advantage over other platforms and it seems mobile sites compatibility issue can be easier solved with a plugin, the WordPress Mobile Plugin. As most plugins this is available for free and in a matter of minutes it will make a blog/website mobile friendly. But in the end, it all depends on the clients’ needs and if he would like a more fancy website then he will probably need a professional web design firm that can handle his requests.