The world was saddened to learn today that Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc., has passed away. He was 56 years old.

I have never met Steve Jobs. We never exchanged emails or spoke on the phone. But when I learned he passed away today I felt deeply sad as if I had lost a close friend.

I have followed Steve Jobs for many years, he was a true visionary,  an incredible business leader and an inspiration to many entrepreneurs.  I cheered Steve’s triumphs (Returning to Apple, MacIntosh, Mac OS X, MacBook, iPod, iPhone and the iPad), and admired Apple’s comeback under his lead.

Having worked with PCs for over 15 years during the 1990s and early 2000s and knowing them inside out, Apple Mac has been something I occasionally worked on but never intended on buying.  That was until I spent two months fixing my Windows based PC after which I had enough and bought my first iMac.  I never looked back and has been a huge Apple fan ever since.

It was Steve’s genius, passion, attention to detail and hard work that made Apple products successful.  Their devices are so easy and fun to use that now if you talk to an Apple product user, it’s as you were talking to Steve Jobs himself.  His passion seeps through Apple products to their users.

Steve has had a profound impact on the world we live in, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

Thanks for the amazing products, inspiration, and life lessons Steve. Rest in piece.

To remember Steve Jobs, watch his famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University entitled “How To Live Before You Die:”

Here is a little tip for Twitter and Facebook users.  In this post I’ll show you how you can easily setup an RSS feed to post updates automatically to your Twitter account and Facebook pages or profile.

This is very handy if you want to:

Twitterfeed Homepage

If you’re anything like me, you use Twitter not only to connect with people, but also to find new interesting articles and websites that people you follow recommend.   By linking an quality RSS feed to your Twitter account, you can “give back” some of that goodness and suggest content to your followers, without having to do anything. It’s all done automatically.

Sure, you should only do this with a quality RSS feed that you are certain your followers will find interesting so you don’t overdo it.

Here is how to link an RSS feed to Twitter or Facebook:

1Go to www.twitterfeed.com

2Create your new account and login

3Create New Feed by clicking the button in top right corner of the screen

4Define your source RSS Feed – enter the name and RSS URL.

Setting up a RSS feed

5Go to “Step two” – connect the RSS feed to your services. At the time of writing this article, you can link RSS feeds to Twitter, Facebook, Statusnet and Hellotxt.

6All done.  You now have an RSS feed linked to your Twitter or Facebook account and it will post new updates as they come in.  You can also check how many people clicked on your links from the Twitterfeed dashboard.

This is a first post in a “Marketing Superheroes” series. I’d like to feature some of the brands that really nailed their marketing in some extraordinary way.

My personal favourite is Valve and their Steam platform.

Steam store

Steam Homepage

Steam is a  digital game distribution, multiplayer and communications system developed by the Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses.

With over 1,200 games available through Steam, and over 30 million active user accounts, Steam is estimated to have a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games.

That alone is impressive, but even more impressive is how Valve uses Steam to increase sales and retain their customers.  All the games purchased from Steam Store are also launched through Steam client.  That means every time you go to play your game, you see the Steam online store.  With their special offers, “Mid-week madness” discounts and weekend specials there is always reason for the gamers to spend a little time browsing through the store.

And now Valve have taken this to a whole new level.

Steam Treasure Hunt Competiton

Steam Treasure Hunt - today's objectives

In the couple of weeks leading to Christmas, Valve has announced a special “Steam Treasure Hunt” competition.   The concept is simple. Every two days Steam will announce a new set of four objectives. The competition spans over two weeks so there are 28 objectives in total. Completing any 10 objectives will act as an entry for the grand prize draw – winning 100 games of your choosing.

On top of that every two days, 20 people who have completed one objective will win the top 5 games on their wishlist. Each objective completed acts as another entry into the draw, so completing all four daily objectives will improve your chances.

Steam Store Top Selling List. Amnesia is on weekend special. Mafia II and Magic the Gathering only appeared in the list after they were featured in today's objectives.

The objective sets usually include at least one simple tasks requiring no purchase, one or two in-game achievements in a low-cost game for under $5 and one in-game achievement in a premium Steam game (RRP over $30).    The games that are highlighted by the objectives are usually on a two day special discount to make them more affordable to gamers.  You can clearly see this works marvels because every two days the games with objectives assigned to them move to the top of store’s best-selling list.

The Treasure Hunt competition is such a brilliant concept that marketers can only applaud the minds behind it.  It’s a great way for Valve to:

1. suggest new games to players
2. increase sales of the featured games
3. keep the Steam community interested and keen on coming back to the store
4. get and excellent PR from press and build inbound links
5. get every gamer who entered the competition to log into the store on December 20  (one of the conditions). It’s a perfect way to announce significant news or pitch specials to everyone involved.

Steam store and it’s Treasure Hunt competition is a perfect example of how to leverage your community and use platform and channels you already have in place to boost sales, generate buzz and keep users coming back for more.

According to the latest data from MYOB Business Monitor, only 34% of New Zealand businesses have a website and only a fifth of businesses sell products online.

In this TVNZ report, MYOB general manager Julian Smith told TVNZ that the results of the survey are both surprising and disappointing with the majority of Kiwi businesses missing the opportunities presented by the internet.

Despite the explosion in use of the internet and the rapid development of the online economy, Kiwi businesses are little more than scraping the surface of what will be the most important piece of business technology in this half of the new century.

Smith says even the local fish and chip shop does need a website as the key factor for any business owner is being found.

The way we shop today is very much just popping on to Google and tapping in a quick search. It’s really key for a business to think how they might use the internet to support them.

MYOB says a business can just use a directory listing online but the evidence shows that a good online presence is a strong driver of business growth.

According to the survey, 44% of businesses with a website have more sales or orders in the pipeline, compared to just 30% of businesses that don’t operate online.

New Zealand has also been slow to adopt more sophisticated online tools and trends, with only 14% of businesses using social media to support business aims.

The survey, however, showed a marked generation gap in the use of social media, with 22% of business owners under 40 using social media tools to promote their business, compared to 11% of those in the over-40 age range.

The survey also provided an insight into how Kiwi businesses are actually using the internet:

• 12% writing blogs or online newsletters to promote their business,
• 14% using social media,
• 22% advertising online,
• 29% monitoring competitors online,
• 35% conducting online research and monitoring industry trends.

Smith says Kiwi businesses who are just starting to think about a website need to put it on their priority list.

Read the full story and watch the video at TVNZ.

I’ll be the first one to admit it – I am a big Apple fan.  I think—and millions of satisfied Mac users would agree—their products are by far the best on the market, and Mac computers beat any PC running windows in both quality and ease of use.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to show you why having an Apple / Mac setup is the easiest and most painless solution for business owners and entrepreneurs on a go.  Below is my personal Apple / Mac setup of devices that work seamlessly with one another.

iMac 24” – The ultimate All-in-one desktop.

I spend most of my time in front of my iMac.  It is the base of my operations.  I do most of my design work, administration, accounting and everything else associated with running a business on my iMac.

Being a graphic designer I need a lot of screen real-estate – the 24” screen on the iMac along with another external  24” monitor provide all the space I need.   By plugging an external USB hard drive to the computer, it feels like I have unlimited storage space, even for editing large movie files.

I can access my iMac and all it’s files via wireless network or—thanks to MobileMe service—even over the internet from anywhere in the world.

To keep my data safe, I use online backup by BackBlaze which automatically backs up content of all my drives to a secure online server.

MacBook Pro – Incredible mobile powerhouse

If you are a business owner, you probably know what it is to be always on-the-go.  I meet with lot of my clients at their premises a notebook has become a necessity.  I use my MacBook Pro for showcasing our design proposals, making final tweaks to client’s websites at sign-offs, browsing internet and responding to emails, when I’m on the road.

I can access the internet anywhere and I don’t even need to have any special USB modem. Just by using my iPhone’s internet tethering option, I can connect my MacBook via to the internet via iPhone.  It all runs over bluetooth so there isn’t even a need for a cable.

Data synchronization

Now the beautiful part about all this – all my key data is synchronized with all the devices I use.  This means I have all my emails (IMAP), contacts, notes, calendars and passwords synchronized (via MobileMe).

I also synchronize all my documents, projects and working files between my iMac and MacBook Pro.  This way I can go to see a client, make any changes to his project on my notebook right on the spot and when I get back to the office, all the changes are automatically mirrored on my big computer.  This works both ways so any changes I may have made on the iMac will get transferred onto the MacBook and any changes I made on the MacBook will get transferred onto the iMac.  (via ChronoSync)

This also means I have all the key data stored on two separate computers. In the event of an unexpected power cut or a hardware failure I can still access all my data and keep my business running.

iPhone

Say what you want but to me iPhone is the best smartphone out there.  If nothing else, the 150,000 apps available for it should be big enough reason to get one.

I use iPhone to quickly check my emails and calendars, make notes on the go, keep in touch on social media or browse the internet when I quickly need to check something and I’m not close to my computer. Because all your contacts, notes, calendars are synchronized with your computer, it really becomes such a handy tool you start wondering how did you ever lived without one.

It can also provide internet access over mobile network for your notebook, without having to sign up for an extra data transfer plan. Connecting notebook to the internet via iPhone takes only a few clicks and is so far the most elegant solution of getting onto the net from anywhere.

Apple Airport Extreme base station

The Airport Extreme base station is an amazing wireless router.  Not only it provides 802.11n dual-band fast wireless network for up to 50 users, it also has an USB port for plugging in your printer or an external hard drive.  This will let you print documents from any room in the house to one central printer or turn a USB hard drive into a shared drive that’s accessible wirelessly on your network and over the Internet.

MobileMe subscription

MobileMe is a service that pushes email, contacts, and calendar events over the air to all your devices. So your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC stay in always synchronized.   It is a must-have for any business professional with Mac and iPhone.  Not only it allows you to keep your key data in sync, it also comes with other brilliant features. The one I find most invaluable is the “Find my iPhone” service, which let’s you find your lost iPhone or iPad using GPS. It even let’s you display a message on the lost phone, make it ring, or erase all your data in case it has been stolen.

iPad

With all the hype, I have to mention iPad as well.  Although it is not available in New Zealand at the time of writing this article, I can easily see it as a perfect fit into the computer setup described above.  iPad is perfect for that casual web browsing, reading your favourite blogs over the coffee in the morning, checking email, or replacing your old paper diary and organizer.

It’s small enough to carry around in your briefcase, yet it’s large touch screen offers the developers plenty of real-estate to work with.  We are already seeing some tremendous applications designed specifically for the iPad and—just like it has been with the iPhone—it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be able to find apps for almost any occasion on the iPad.

Google Wave

There is one more tool I’d like to mention. Although it’s not an Apple product, it has similar properties that are behind the success of Apple’s products.   Google Wave is simple, innovative and milestones ahead of anything else we have known so far.  It’s an online tool for real-time collaboration and communication.

I have adopted Google Wave for my business because it makes working on a project and overall communication much simpler than email or phone calls.  It’s perfect when you have more people working on same project, even more if some of the people involved are either on a road or work from remote location.

With Wave, it’s easy to log in from any location, check on the project status, post your own updates or just chat with your colleagues.  One of the many uses I found is to use Wave for taking notes when in the meeting with a client.  My colleague can instantly see all the notes and instructions I’ve written, as well as any file attachments, and she can start working on the project straight away. She can also post her own questions which I can instantly see while in the meeting and address any issues I might have missed, right on the spot. For some businesses, Google Wave can be a perfect free time-saving tool.

Quick summary

Here is a quick summary of my vision of “Perfect Mac Setup”

Use iMac as your desktop computer and as a heart of your operations.

Use MacBook Pro whenever on the go or for working at home.  You could also use your MacBook Pro as your main computer when in the office, simply by plugging it into the Apple 24″ LED Cinema display (any other monitor would work too, but these ones are the best).

Use iPhone for phone calls, quick checking of emails and calendar on the road and to connect your notebook to the internet when no wireless network is available.

Use iPad for reading on the internet, checking and writing emails when not at the computer and as an organizer. I’m sure you would quickly find many other uses for it as well.

Use Apple Airport Extreme as your wireless network router.

Setup your mail server as IMAP to keep all your emails synchronized. IMAP stores all your emails on the server so any changes you make on one computer (marking messages read, moving emails into folders, deleting messages etc…) are automatically reflected on all the devices connecting to the server.

Use MobileMe service to keep your contacts, calendar events, passwords and other settings synchronized between your iMac, MacBook, iPhone and iPad.

Use ChronoSync to keep your data files, documents and working files mirrored between your desktop and notebook. This way you’ll always have all your latest data with you and you don’t have to worry about losing data in case of an unlikely hardware failure.

Use BackBlaze for online backup – it’s cheap and it automatically backs up all your files onto a remote server.

Use Google Wave when communicating with your team on a project or in cases that usually required a lot of emailing back and forth. It could very well save you a lot of time.

The above setup and solution is what I found to be working best for myself and my team. I think it shows how seamlessly Apple products work with one another – it plays a big part in why I recommend Apple products to anyone I think would benefit from owning one.

I hope this post will help you make things easier for yourself. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on the topic.

What did you find as a best computer solution working for you?

Google Wave–a new communication and collaboration tool developed by Google–has certainly caused a lot of buzz in the past months.  While it is still in pre-beta stage and access is limited by invitations, Google Wave clearly demonstrates it has the potential to change the way we work and communicate online.  Those who can see the capabilities hidden behind the little bit clumsy interface (remember the development is still in early stages) know Google Wave is something to monitor closely.  Those who do not “get it” on the other hand are clearly not the right audience for testing the beta version and will probably be very surprised once the technology is adopted by mainstream programmers and developers.

I believe Google Wave is a platform that will become very successful once enough people start using it.  The key is to think of it as a platform on which other great things will be built on.   Remember iPhone SDK? By giving away the tools to build iPhone applications for free, Apple AppStore has grown exponentially to the point where it now has over 100,000 iPhone applications.  Google is on the right track to similar success.

Following Itai Boublil’s post, I decided to describe how I use Google Wave in my business.

Me and my team have been using Google Wave for over a month now. Ever since I saw the first demo of what it can do I knew Google Wave is the perfect tool for our internal communication.  We design websites and marketing materials and most projects involve at least two or three people. I have structured my business so that everyone works from home. There is no central office therefore having a good communication channel is essential for us.  Before Wave we handled things by email, instant messaging or phone which was a bit cumbersome at times.

Using Google Wave simplified our internal communication and increased productivity by quite a bit. No more bouncing emails back and forth, waiting for the other side to reply … it’s like email meets instant messaging on steroids.

We use Wave as a project management tool, work sheets, internal memo board, track of payments, to-do list, link exchange plus normal -. The savings are in productivity alone but this free tool also replaced our $400 project management system.

If you have a project or a work on a document which requires input from more than two people, give Google Wave a go. You might be surprised how quickly you get used to it and how easy it is to use.

Yes it is a bit rocky at times and the speed could be better, but considering how useful it is for us even now while Google Wave is still in it’s very early stages, I think it’s safe to say it’s really going to be a huge success and is certainly worth a try.

Seriously! There is no question about it.

I have switched to the iMac about a year and a half ago and to this day I cannot believe I haven’t done it sooner.  With the new Snow Leopard system inside, working on a Mac just makes everything so much easier and more comfortable.   I no longer have to fight with windows about drivers (Macs have everything pre-installed, ready to go), getting new security programs (there are no viruses on Mac) and I can concentrate on my work rather than fixing things because Macs just work.

I actually find I’m working much faster on Mac, simply because it’s easier to use.  Apple Mail is by far the easiest email client I have ever used (and I tried way too many of them over the years).  Thanks to “Spaces”, I can have mail and Internet open on one screen,  all the windows related to one project on another screen, next project open on the third screen and all my other programs on the fourth space. I can switch between these with one click of a button so there is no minimizing of windows and the usual cluttered Windows task bar is a history. Switching to Mac was really easy process and I can even run all my old Windows programs on a Mac with no problems whatsoever.

I’m a former IT guy, I used to sell PCs for a living and I know them inside out, but after fifteen years of working with PC, I’m though with Windows and I’d be happy if i don’t have to touch a PC ever again.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again:  Get a Mac. It’s well worth every penny.