I bought a new smartphone recently and I'm loving it...

By the way, due to getting the new phone and to avoid a 72 no contact downtime I got a new phone #: 941-268-7009.

Back to story: I originally bought a semi-smart phone, a Motorola Clutch 465, last year. It was a good phone, I could take photos, keep lots on contacts, text (a little difficult at times) and load Opera Mini on it which was light years beyond the default browser. My service was Boost Mobile, which had better reception than my previous carrier, Metro PCS.

Because of creating Hippopadamus Software, I needed to start purchasing the smart phones I was creating apps for. So I shopped for a Blackberry first, its the most popular phone out there and just came to both Boost and Virgin Mobile for very reasonable rates ( my plan is $50/month). I switched from Boost to Virgin because they offered the Curve 8530 (Boost only has the 8520) my timing was perfect because Virgin just 2 weeks ago changed their plans so that the Blackberry phone only adds $10 to whatever plan you want (plans start at $25/month).

As you can see, I like to stick with non-contract phones. Though you have to eat the full phone price (BB Curve 8530 was $300) I enjoy the freedom of switching networks or phones on-the-fly without penalty. Also in my cases the rates were lower, not to mention those bad financial months where the phone simply goes on standby until you can pay with no overages or penalties.

As for the Blackberry, all I can say is: If I could have done this long ago I would have. I always had a feeling that the smart phones would make it to the non-contract market, I just didnt think it would take this long. But FINALLY someone thought about this economic market and realized the potential of selling smart phones to the "other crowd".

The phone has already helped my business. The apps it comes with have helped me organize on-the-go like I have at the office. I've DL'd more apps that have helped productivity. The clutch had GPS capability for free but it either didn't work or took 5-10 minutes to come up. With the BB it's seconds and with very accurate directions...

Well, this blog about the new phone number has turned into a pitch for the Blackberry Curve 8530. Since I've gone this far: If you live in the Port Charlotte area and want a smart phone, go to the Best Buy on Veterans Hwy and US41, ask for Will, tell him Scott sent you.

In August I'll blog how Boost's first Android phone compares.

On April 29, 2010, Steve Jobs essentially banned Flash from the iPhone platform. This means the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices will not display Flash video of any type. Jobs and Apple prefer to use HTML5 a new standard that though available now really only works in Safari and Chrome (two browsers we use but don't fully support yet).

This does and will have an impact on how we develop moving forward. Gravity Factory (parent company) just lauched a new brand hippopadamus which develops iPhone/iPad apps and plans to migrate much of our technology to Apple, including mobile devices. Though this migration will take the balance of 2010, it seems nonetheless that we will have to adapt and change. Right now all of our web sites that use video, use Flash (including the header above).

Okay, so for my first blog I'm going to explain some aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by using Star Wars metaphors. As anyone who knows me or has been in my office could figure out, I'm a Star Wars fan. I've got ships, galactic heros, figures and bobbleheads on every wall and desk. That being said, I'm going to use something I know a lot about to explain something that I and so many others are still learning:

There are both Light and Dark sides to SEO.

In the SEO world they are termed "white hat" and "black hat". But like the Jedi Forces of Light and the Sith Dark Force, one method is tried and true while the other offers a quick rise to power. Here's another truth the dark side corrupts and ends in harsh penalties while the light side always wins in the end. How so?

Yeah, it's 2010 and yeah, this is my first official blog. Even though at this late date I'm finally entering the Blogsphere, I'm guessing I'm not alone. Many businesses out there still don't take advantage of this very important internet tool.

Since I started web development using Joomla, I've been interested in what "blogging" can do. After studying the many benefits of creating my own "web log" and being convinced to create one, my next inquiry was where to post it. There are lots of blogging web sites out there - BUT - there is no better place than your own web site to post your blog. Blog web sites thrive because visitors go to them to read the posts. If each time you blog the information is posted to servers (an automated process) then visitors will find and read what you have to say and traffic can start to stream to your web site, and you know what that could mean for you business.

Well, with all that being said, we're going to start integrating blog capability in our client web sites, for those who want it., We'll also add it as a FREE feature for all of our future web development projects. It's that valuable and will help our clients make more from their web site investments. It's what we do and how we continually redefine web design.

Till the next post...