Dress Up Like Steve Jobs Day!
They say the highest form of flattery is imitation. To honor the ongoing legacy of Steve Jobs, a few of us at iPhone Life decided to make September 9th the official “Dress Up Like Steve Jobs” day. We got a fantastic amount of response: from Time magazine to the Smurf filmmakers. People sent images from all over the globe, and you can see the full album at iphonelife.com/stevejobsday. We even got coverage on CNN, Time, and CBS. Here are our favorites.

- iPhone Life Magazine – Buyers Guide 2011 Issue

Today we picked up business cards we designed for Joseph W. Mazzuco Construction Inc. This marks the first set of cards we’ve designed with a QR Tag. I’m sure you’ve seen QR Tags on all sorts of promotional materials or products these days. QR Tags are an excellent feature for any business card or other print material.

SS Media Co designed the JWM Construction Inc logo and card layout

Once again ClubCard delivered an amazing product and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. The cards we’re printed using their Tree-Free printing method, which means they are printed on paper that’s made from post consumer waste.

Thanks again to Matt Dobo & the other fine folks at ClubCard, the best print shop in Vancouver by far!

Here’s what ClubCard says about the process.

Tree-Free Printing – 100% Green
Can printing be organic? We think so and share your commitment to eco-friendly ethically-produced, 100% post consumer waste content products. Your full colour job will be printed with soy inks utilizing stochastic screen (random dot pattern) technology (380 line screen equivalent) on a press that operates on its own reverse osmosis water plant. Used press rags are burned as fuel with no volatile organic compounds released and the remaining ash is then used in cement products. For a more economical option we suggest our premium offset option.

For more on QR Tags

http://keremerkan.net/qr-code-and-2d-code-generator/

Having gone over my limit, it pained me to send out each additional text; while each text was only $0.20 I can swear I remember a time where it was only $0.05 a text. Worse still, I’ve read many articles on actual estimates of text data compared to the $0.99 download on iTunes. We all know that carriers have jacked up prices for texting over the last couple of years. Send a text across a border and its even worse, just plain ridiculous if you ask me.

During this past week I took the time to look back at the announcement of Apple iOS 5 and specifically “iMessage”. At the time of the announcement, like most Vancouver residents I was stricken with Canucks Fever and our probable “sweep” of the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals. While, that didn’t pan out as we had all hoped…lets move on, I’m sorry I brought that up. Back to iMessage. I thought it was an instant messenger or way to text my iDevice using friends. Now upon further investigation, I see that it’s potentially a way around the carrier’s outrageous texting fees as you can text to any number, iMessage checks to see if the recipient is an iPhone and adjusts the appropriate format. Now, its unclear if this will work internationally but since you can use iMessage on your iPod touch or iPad over Wi-Fi I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I personally love anything that will stick it to the carriers even just a little.

For additional information here is this great article by Buster Heine Cult of Mac - original article

iMessage is Going to Be Huge! Here’s Our Hands-on Look at How it Works

Apple’s new iMessage app was one of the biggest surprises at WWDC yesterday. Once I got iOS 5 and Lion installed on my devices, I asked our Twitter followers what they wanted to know about the new OSes and we got a lot of questions about iMessage and how it works. There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding the new service, so let me help explain how iMessage works on iOS 5.

iMessage is not a stand alone app. Instead, Apple converged iMessages and SMS Texts into one app called “Messages.” This is great because instead of having to switch between different apps, and worrying about how to get all your contacts synced up for both of them it’s all taken care of on the back-end.

What’s great about Messages is that you don’t have to know your friends Apple ID or tell your iPhone to send them an iMessage instead of an SMS. Your iOS 5 iPhone automatically checks to see if the phone number you’re sending to is an iPhone running iOS 5 and if the recipient is running iOS 5 it will send them an iMessage rather than an SMS Text. It’s incredibly simple and will probably save a lot of people some money on texting fees.

Once it’s been determined that a contact has iOS 5, your Address Book is update and a small blue chat bubble will appear next to the contact’s name in the future, indicating that they can receive iMessages.

If you’re still not sure whether you’re sending an iMessage to SMS Text, Apple has revamped the texting screen by adding a little bit more color. SMS message conversations are green while iMessage conversations are blue. Here is a screenshots of me sending a text to my girlfriend (who for some reason is still rocking a Palm Pre) and another screen sending a text to CoM Writer, Killian Bell who is using an iPhone 4 with iOS 5. Notice that the “Send” button on the SMS and the iMessage are different colors, as well as the outgoing chat bubble.

A few other odds and ends: Many people look to iMessages as a way to end their Texting Plans, but how can you keep from sending SMS messages on accident? Easy. iOS 5 allows users to turn off SMS messaging completely so that iMessages are the only protocol that can be sent. The reverse is also true in that you can turn off iMessage as well so that you’re only doing SMS.

Another question has been, “well what if I have an iPod Touch and no iPhone?” Users with an iPod Touch can send/receive iMessages by using their Apple ID. You even have the option of changing your “Caller ID” from your phone number to your email address.

Overall, iMessages are great. Being able to see when a message has been delivered and whether it’s been read or not really enhance the communication experience. The best part is that you don’t have to even think about them because if Apple is doing all of the work completely behind the scenes so that you won’t even notice. Using iMessages on multiple devices with the new support of iCloud ensures that you’ll never miss a beat when you’re working on both your iPad and iPhone.

Now that you’ve had a better look at it, what do you think? Will iMessages slowly replace your Texting?

Horrified by the actions by GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons?  We are too!  Check out this promotion by rival company Namecheap.com

“It’s not often that we would disagree publicly with a competitor, but we at Namecheap are very disturbed by this video of a competitor killing an elephant for sport (Warning: Very Graphic!).

We’ve decided to throw our support behind our Elephant friends by offering domain transfers at a price where we actually lose money.

Show your protest by saying BYEBYEGD again and transfer your domains to Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11 (limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains): Update: This coupon has been extended and will run through 11:59pm EST on 4/1/11.

On top of that, we’ll donate $1 for each transfer to Save The Elephants at http://www.savetheelephants.org/

Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let’s help the Elephants together!”

This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

These Big Telecom companies are forcing small competing ISPs to adopt the same pricing scheme, so that we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.

This will crush innovative services, Canada’s digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

We urgently need to send a clear message to Ottawa, saying that we won’t stand by while some of the most profitable companies in the country indiscriminately add new fees to our Internet bills. Enough is enough.

UPDATE: The Liberals and the NDP have now come out AGAINST Internet metering. We’re winning, Canada – now onto the government in power!

Loading…

Hi everyone,

This Movember, the month formerly known as November I’ve decided to donate my face to raising awareness about prostate cancer.  My donation and commitment is the growth of a moustache for the entire month of Movember, which I know will generate conversation, controversy and laughter.

I’m doing this because 4,400 men die of prostate cancer in Canada each year and one in six men will be diagnosed during his lifetime.
This is a cause that I feel passionately about and I’m asking you to support my efforts by making a donation to Prostate Cancer Canada.

To help, you can either:

*  Click this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1041808/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account

All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit: http://ca.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

Thank you in advance for helping me to support men’s health.

Lady Gaga vs Scooby Gaga in Meat Dress Who Wore it Best? Vote in the Comments

Toby Gad produced and co-wrote Beyonce’s #1Grammy winning hit-single “If I Were a Boy,” co-wrote Fergie’s Grammy nominated #1 smash”Big Girls Don’t Cry,”(Song Of The Year 2008), Veronica’s platinum US-hit “Untouched” and over a dozen other Billboard hit records. For more information on Toby Gad, check out http://www.ssmediaco.com/2009/05/toby-gad/ and be sure to visit tobygad.com

We received our new business cards today! This marks the second generation of SS Media Co cards that we’re printed by ClubCard in Vancouver. Once again ClubCard delivered an amazing product and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. The cards we’re printed using their Tree-Free printing method, which of course isn’t exactly correct, they are printed on paper that’s made from post consumer waste. Tree-Free just sounds better and it feels good that no new trees had to perish in the creating of these new cards.

Here’s what ClubCard says about the process.

Tree-Free Printing – 100% Green
Can printing be organic? We think so and share your commitment to eco-friendly ethically-produced, 100% post consumer waste content products. Your full colour job will be printed with soy inks utilizing stochastic screen (random dot pattern) technology (380 line screen equivalent) on a press that operates on its own reverse osmosis water plant. Used press rags are burned as fuel with no volatile organic compounds released and the remaining ash is then used in cement products. For a more economical option we suggest our premium offset option.

In addition to the amazing print job ClubCard also added our cards to the sample table, which we can’t thank them enough for. If that wasn’t enough we just received this amazing email from Matt Dobo.

SSMEDIACO website rocks.

I work at Clubcard Printing in Vancouver. I saw your cards arrive printed, and I think they look amazing. This led me to reconnoiter around your website, and it was nice to see the unity going on there.

As a web enthusiast, and a CSS fan, l bow to you!!!

Regards,
Matt Dobo

For more information on Tree-Free Printing check out ClubCard.ca

All of their shared and reseller servers are now 130% wind powered!

That’s right! 130%!

We’re not just neutralizing our environmental impact, we’re reversing it! HostGator has purchased certified Renewable Energy Credits representing 130% of the electricity used to both power and cool every last one of our shared and reseller servers!

Just how big a dent in climate change does that make?
It’s the equivalent of:

1. Removing 444 cars from the road for a year, or

2. Powering 321 homes with clean energy for a year, or

3. Saving 5,654 barrels of oil, or

4. Protecting 551 acres of forest for a year

Click on the banner to sign up and use coupon code “GATORGREEN” to save $9.94 off any hosting package, which makes your first month only $0.01!

SS Media Co loves Host Gator’s 24/7 phone support and now their’s another reason to love them a little more.