Phil and his team at Back9Design have kept me very busy of late with a flurry of new web sites and more are in development.  We make up a framework and the Back9 team fill it up with the all important content.  We check it over and make sure everything works and test it across a multitude of platforms (mobiles, notebooks, different browsers etc.).  Then the sites are optimised for search engine visibility and linked to social media.

Here are a few we've put up recently:

• MervsMechanical.co.nz 
• EmmaStanleyLaw.co.nz
• SafetyFirstServiceLocators.co.nz
• Tuffjets.co.nz
• ThayerToddValuations.co.nz

Keeping your emails stored in order is good practice but whats the best way to do this across multiple devices? The Label system in Gmail and the Mail app within Google Apps for Business functions somewhat different to folders in conventional email clients like Outlook, MacMail and others. Some people love this, others are more sceptic but when it's explained properly most come around - labels work, folders are yesterdays jam....

The key advantage with labeling an email rather than placing it in a folder is you can add multiple labels to them - so a message can be located numerous ways. Labeling works much the same way as folders - click on a label and up pops all the corresponding correspondence. This capitalises on Gmails archive system and the huge email storage Google offer. You need only delete emails if you're 110% sure you'll never want it.  You can set up rules or 'filters' for when an email comes in it gets automatically labelled. This is what I do, I've created filters based on who sent me the email, if they're clients the email is labeled with their business name. The email appears in the inbox - the inbox is actually a label too, when you archive the email the inbox label is removed, the email can be located in 'all mail' and in any label that was attached to it. Here's a quick tutorial on how to label emails in Gmail:

By creating your labels (and filters) within Gmail you never have to worry about doing it again - If you've replaced your computer you may have had the task of setting folders up from scratch, if you do it here it takes effect on all devices you use with this email, your emails are backed up and your labels and filters are saved. Here's a short tutorial on how to make filters. Check out GoogleGooru.com for more advanced tutorials.

Not all users are contented using a web browser interface for their email - I am one of those people. I strongly prefer using an email client like (but not) Outlook, Windows Mail or Mac Mail. Thunderbird from open source developer Mozilla was okay but had its limitations and now its no longer being supported. Postbox is an email client I've mentioned in earlier posts and one I plan to write a blog post about soon. What makes Postbox stand apart to other email clients is that it handles Gmails labels extremely well. So look out for that soon and feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comment section below. Oh, and if you're wondering about 'Yesterdays Jam' click here.

'Need' is a pretty strong word but thats how I feel about Dropbox having used it for a few years now. Who out there has good habits with backing up their important documents, photos and files? If you have Dropbox already you probably answered an emphatic YES, but if you don't well this should really be of interest to you.

Dropbox is a Cloud Storage service. Essentially, it creates a folder on your computer which is copied to a server, any changes or additions you make to files  within that folder are uploaded when you're connected to the internet. You can access your files from any connected computer using your username and password, and you can share folders with other Dropbox users with great ease - fantastic for sending lots of  files to your Graphic Designer....

Dropbox has free accounts and paid subscriptions for larger storage allowances. The free account starts at 2GB which for many will be sufficient for personal documents. Referring others gains you and the person you refer  a further 0.5GB each, up to a total of 16GB which could take care of all your photos too. Click our link here for your first bonus 500MB of storage.

Dropbox is one of many Cloud Storage services (Google Drive, Mega Upload and many others), but it is easily the simplest and most thought out system we've encountered. As it's got a huge following you'll find a lot of other services are compatible with Dropbox. Here are our favourite uses for Dropbox:

1. My working design files are always up-to-date on the Windows Computer in my studio, my Macbook (laptop) for portable use and an android tablet.
2. Sharing folders with clients means I can send and receive documents and photographs without having to attach them to emails and double handle them saving them to a folder.
3. With the Android/iOS app installed on your smart phone you can select for photos to be copied directly to your Dropbox. No more connecting your phone to your PC, simply snap some photos on your smartphone, go to your computer and open Camera Uploads folder in your Dropbox and there they are waiting for you. -You can choose for this to only happen when your phone is connected to WiFi if your mobile data plan only has a small allowance. 

There are a lot of things to like about Dropbox but its good to know what it'll cost if you need more storage. Certain Samsung Mobile phones (the higher end ones like the SIII, S4, Note II & III) come with a free 50GB Dropbox for 2 years. Sounds great but what happens after the 2 years? Well it drops to 2MB (+ your referral bonuses) unless you subscribe to a Pro User plan. Currently the smallest plan is 100GB and costs either US$9.95 per month or US$99 per year. I'm hoping Samsung continues this offer and that when I update my phone I'll get another 2 years, however I'm doubtful this'll work out so well - but then I haven't gone over 16 GB yet. I think Dropbox have left a too larger gap between the free account and the lowest paid plan, 100GB is a massive amount of documents , a 40 - 50 GB plan for $50 per year would be good for me and I'd imagine many others who're accustomed to this size storage. Worth noting is that Google Drive offers 100GB for $4.99/mth, which is about half the price of Dropbox.  I've used both services and when it comes to sharing and ease of use Dropbox trumps Google Drive, but so it should for charging double. If you can get by with the free account for your important documents and photos (most of you will), you'll be very happy with Dropbox.

One of the first things we sort out for clients with new businesses is a domain name. This isn't just for for your website - it's your companies' online identity. I'll explain this further below, but first lets look at email.
There are plenty of good free mail services out there, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AppleMail and more. Your ISP (Internet service provider) will no doubt offer you free email accounts also - this is a cunning way to keep you as a customer as changing ISPs will mean closing these email accounts. Once you've invested in advertising this email address you won't want to change it, so changing ISP for a better price, speed or service is no longer an option. Also, having an email address like bouncycastles@yahoo.com might be appropriate if you're renting out bouncy castles, but other cases these free domains can hinder your professional appearance. What you need to know is having email accounts on your domain is easy....

So back to your domain name - you businesses' online identity.  When starting a new company you'll check these sort of thing out to make sure someone isn't using that name already. We can register domain names for you and this can make things easier when it comes to setting up email accounts. It costs just $30 per year for a domain name and means you've secured it for your company. Now you've got that sorted we can create you an email account which ends with that domain name (ie: yourname@your_domain.co.nz). 

Amongst the free and paid email services one stands out as being the best to us: Gmail. If you have a Gmail Account we can set email forwarding from your domain to your account and setup your Gmail account to send and receive as this identity. This is a clever method with the only ongoing cost being the $30 per year for your domain name.  With this method you'll login to something like yourgoogleID_55@gmail.com and you can use that username for sites like Youtube, Google+, your Android smartphone and anything else related to Google.

For greater functionality and a more streamlined method we offer Google Apps for Business.  Here your email@your_domain is your login, we can setup aliases like accounts@your_domain.co.nz which you can send and receive from within the one account, we can accounts for other people within your company, and Google Apps for Business works fantastically with Smartphone and Tablet Apps, and Email Clients like Outlook, MacMail, Thunderbird, Postbox (a review coming soon for Postbox) and many others for Windows and Apple computers. Google Apps' integration across platforms is one of it's strongest functions, it doesn't matter which combination of devices you might have, if you open an email on an iPad it's shown as read on your Windows Laptop; just as if you sent an email on your Macbook it'll be found in the sent folder on your Android phone. You also get calendar, contact list, notes and chat which again work seamlessly across different devices. The contact list can synchronise with your smartphones contacts, as can the calendar and to-do list.  
Google Apps for Business is available from Google for US$5 per month or US$50 per year (per user account) , and Aeon Design can provide you the very same functionality for the same price but with our added personal service and on-going support . We can even take care of the initial setup for you and we offer one-to-one training for just $20 per hour (a new blog post on Training services from Aeon Design coming soon). 

So, it's about 2 years since I modified my studio desk from a seated arrangement to a fixed standing one. While I haven't recorded any real data on productivity, I can offer some anecdotal findings. At first my feet and ankles would become fatigued so I bought a bar stool and modified this to be a little higher as the standing desk is a bit higher than a bar (to suit my height). Normally I use this seat for the first 5 minutes of a working session, then almost unconsciously I remove the seat as it simply feels far more comfortable to stand. My posture at the desk is far better and mental fatigue takes a lot longer to become noticeable.  This mirrors Radio NZs' Simon Morton's  findings in the podcast below which also explains a lot of the scientific findings around standing desks.
I'm yet to upgrade to a 'walking desk' but I do find myself shifting my stance a lot so this is something I'll try out soon.

So my wife doesn't quite understand my current enthusiam. I've spent a few (several) late nights researching, selecting and sourcing all the best (within my budget) parts for my new studio system. Now it's all here and after surprisingly little fustration, its assembled and alive!

I've had my heart set on a Fractal Design case. They come pre installed with something I'm yet to see on other computer cases: Sound baffeling. And most impressive is how solid this case is - its a tank! I've gone for the smaller R3 mini to save a little space and it suits the microATX board from Asus I'd chosen earlier. I had narrowed the case down to 2 - this and the Silverstone F3 Micro Tower.

It was always going to be easier fitting the liquid cooling systel in the Fractal Design case and the Antech 920 works a treat - must say it was the second one sent out, first one had a bubbling noise. The replacement is almost silent and the Antec software only ramps up the fans when you need it.

Lightroom is really the only program I use that causes the i7 quadcore to go beyond 50 degrees C - I'd put that down to the loading of hundreds ofraw high res photos. Photoshop, Indesign, Flash, Illustrator, all running at once, this thing barely breaks at sweat 40 degrees C, and idle it's sub 30 C.

The touch screen fan controller monitors heat in 5 different zones through sensor I've installed and the case fans increase speed when and where required.

How could this possibly be considered 'geeky'