Stefan Hasselblad

No More Nokia – I’m Leaving for HTC

Stefan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:17:23 +0000

I’ve been a loyal Nokia owner since my first mobile phone (except for a painful Samsung stint in my teens, we all do things we regret in our teens don’t we?), but now something is happening within the world of mobile phones … the HTC HD2!

Alot of you have the iPhone, and seem to like it quite well, and thats ok…if you’re looking for a toy. If however you are looking for a machine, then new HTC will blow the iPhone out of the water (finally).

Check out the promo video below:

I’ll put more info up once I get my hands on the phone, which knowing my luck will take weeks.

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Basics of Social Media ROI

Stefan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:40:45 +0000

Social media is all the rage, especially for businesses. But as a business how do you measure the success of your social media efforts?

Olivier Blanchard, founder of Brand Builder Marketing has put together the following slideshow that expertly shows you what you need to know about the basics. Definitely worth a look:

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

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Messier Honoured with Lester Patrick Award

Stefan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:11:05 +0000

If you follow hockey you’ll know the name Mark Messier; the Canadian player who won 5 Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers before moving to the New York Rangers and achieving legend status. Messier amassed 1887 points in 1756 games in his career, putting him in second place in both categories all time, with only Wayne Gretzky beating him on points and Gordie Howe with an extra 11 games.

A few weeks ago Messier was honoured with the Lester Patrick award for “outstanding service to hockey in the United States”. Below you can see a tribute video to the man simply called The Captain:

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Toptable.co.uk – Have Your Say Then Eat For Free

Rangers Victory Over Devils

Stefan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:05:30 +0000

Congrats to the New York Rangers for a good victory over divisional rivals the New Jersey Devils.

Here are the Ranger goals that won “us” the game

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New Sharp TV

Watch This if You Are Starting Up Your Own Business

Stefan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:19:39 +0000

I came across this 22 minute video (yes I know its long) and thought I would post it just in case anyone reading this is starting up their own business, or thinking about starting up.

The video is a presentation by Mint founder Aaron Patzer at this year’s Juice Pitcher event. Mint was recently sold for $170 million, and in the presentation he takes you through the daily life of a start-up. It’s peppered with good advice and things to look out for.

Enjoy.

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Windows 7 – I Hope It’s Better Than The Launch Video

Stefan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:53:27 +0000

Be warned, you’re about to watch the worst launch video of all time. Viewer discretion is advised due to the abosloute ridiculous nature of this video.

Wow. I really hope the product is better than the launch video.

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LifeIO – Public Beta

Stefan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:37:45 +0000

A few months ago I wrote about an innovative app online called LifeIO (pronounced “life-eye-oh”), it was in private beta at the time and I really liked the sound of it. I pinged the people at LifeIO a few words asking to be a part of the public beta launch, and they’ve now duly delivered.

Well I like it so far; having spent very little time on the system I’ve already configured it to pull in my favourite blog feeds, integrated my social media profiles and setup my email through a POP3 configuration. Easy as pie.

A good user interface aides the usability of the site, and the easy way to re-skin it and add your own background gives it a nice personal touch as well.

Have a look at some of the screens available in LifeIO:

I’ve not yet mucked about with the calendar or to-do notes functionality, but I know you can sync your existing Outlook calendar to LifeIO. You can also link your chat profiles to lifeIO, but so far my attempts to integrate MSN chat has failed, it is still a public beta after all.

The aim of the app is to collate your online life to one area, and so far it looks as though they are succeeding. It’s free too, so far anyway, and their main revenue stream seems to be the online shopping sites integrated in the app. They’ve got deals with Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo Shopping, iTunes, Craigslist and Fandango which gives LifeIO an affiliate kick back every time someone buys an item through the app. For the end user this is preferable to an add based revenue scheme, as it won’t clutter up the screen with adverts you’re not interested in. Lets just hope enough people use the shopping part of LifeIO so that it can stay free for the end user and contain a minimum amount of advertising.

Check it out at www.lifeio.com.

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Beta Watch: LifeIO

Did You Know? Stats About Digital Convergence

Stefan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:28:29 +0000

Interesting youtube video:

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TechSmiths’ “Jing” – It’s Cool & It’s Still Free

Stefan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:22:18 +0000

A few years back I came across the Jing Project; some developers at TechSmith had decided to make a video screen capture tool to complement their image screen capturing program SnagIt. At the time it was free to download and use while they were in public beta, and the software was so good I was hooked immediately. Unfortunately I didn’t have many projects that required video screen capturing at the time, so after I had played around with it for a while I left it alone.

For some reason Jing popped into my mind today and I thought I’d see how far they’d come with the application. Well, since the beta days they’ve released a Pro version of the program for sale at $14.95 a year, a bargain. But if you’re looking for an even cheaper solution and don’t mind displaying the Jing brand on the video creen captures, then they still have the free version available.

There’s plenty of bells and whistles included in the software, it’s worth heading over to www.jingproject.com to see what it’s all about. While you’re there; have a look at the other products built by TechSmith, it’s an impressive range.

Now I just need an excuse to buy them

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Service With a Smile

Stefan — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:09:19 +0000

Whatever happened to the concept of smiling to your customers?

I remember (vaguely) the heady days of the 80’s when many of the big corporations made it a priority to put their employees through ’smile classes’ in order to come across as friendly and service minded individuals. These same companies still value a good smile and know how far it can progress relationships with their customers.

The problem is the new generation selfish bastards being bred throughout the western world. In a customer facing situation they seem to take a very self centered attitude, instead of understanding that they are representing a company, not themselves. Too often i come across people in the service industry with a frown on their face when facing customers, broadcasting the vibe that its such a shame that they…THEY have to work, that THEY have to communicate to customers, don’t we know that THEY have far better things to do with their time? It baffles me to see such blatant disregard for professionalism time and time again.

Whats going wrong and where? Its too easy to blame ’society’. In my opinion this all stems from peoples upbringing; parents need to be able to teach their kids that its ok to be an individual, but that being an individual doesnt mean being selfish.

Smile more! Not only will you live longer, you’ll achieve more and get further in life as well.

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