Apologies
We apologise for any lapse in replies to comments. We have been fairly busy here at Decode and the blog got neglected. The good news is we are back on track and would love to hear from you so feel free to get commenting!
IPad
Apple’s new iPad is the latest thing to take the technology industry by storm. Even Decode Studios’ Director has jumped on the bandwagon despite misgivings about Apple technology.
The iPad advertises itself as ‘A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price’. The tablet style computer certainly looks impressive and professional. The 9.7-inch LED screen allows you to enjoy the features the iPad has to offer:
Web Browser
The widescreen makes viewing the web, through Apple’s browser Safari, easy and text readable, turning the screen rotates the web page before expanding it to fit the screen.
The touchscreen allows you to navigate around and the iPad has a thumbnail view to show you your open webpages.
It connects to high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi and you can surf from just about anywhere with optional 3G networking.
The iPad lets you synch from your Mac or PC and you can create icons on the main screen for sites you access daily.
Holding your iPad in a landscape position splits your screen to display both open and unopened emails. Turning it to portrait focuses on the email you are reading to fit the screen.
To write a new message you are presented with a large touchscreen keyboard which automatically corrects your spelling and punctuation while suggesting alternative words.
Opening attachments is simple as you don’t have to open it with another app you can view it directly by tapping the screen.
The iPad converts URLs, phone numbers, email addresses, and street addresses to links opening the right app for your need.
Photos
Your photos appear as albums piled so you can pinch to preview. You can open the album to view photos closer, scroll through thumbnails or view fullscreen.
The screen displays your photos in high colour and with IPS technology it allows multiple people to view from different angles.
You can search your photos by event and date but also by the people in them. Simply tapping a face brings up an album with all the photos you have of them in.
Videos
Since iPad has no distracting keypad or buttons you can focus on what you are watching and carry on watching for up to 10 hours on its lithium-polymer battery.
You can buy or rent movies through the ITunes store including HD. It automatically sends it to your IPad library so that nothing delays your watching.
The iPad allows you to navigate through the chapters of the movie and alter your view from widescreen to fullscreen.
This makes the iPad an obvious option for travellers on planes.
Music
The large screen displays your music as CD albums and when you tap the screen to listen to a song, the album art stays onscreen while it plays. You can use your finger to shuffle, pause or change the track.
Store
Both the iTunes store and the app store can be accessed wirelessly anywhere with the iPad. You can search your way through the thousands of options and have them downloaded directly to you wherever you are. With over 200,000 apps and millions of songs and movies to choose from the iPad doesn’t lack variety.
Maps
The iPad offers you high-resolution satellite imagery , you can lift the corner of the map and switch views. Wi-Fi finds your location using known Wi-Fi hotspots, and Wi-Fi + 3G models use Wi-Fi, GPS, and cellular towers. You can search your nearby location for restaurants and other points of interest by name or alternatively, type “restaurants” in the search field and all the closest restaurants will appear as pins around you. You can then see a restaurant’s name or see it in street view so you’ll recognize it. It will then provide you with directions.
Spotlight Search
Filtering through your iPad is made easier by the Spotlight Search function. Clicking to the right on the home screen will bring up the Spotlight Search where you can search through the iPad, through your contacts, events, music and much more.
Spotlight is also available inside many apps. You can search names in Contacts; subject, sender, and recipient in Mail; and calendar events by subject, location, or attendees and more.
Decode Studio’s Top five iPad Apps.
1. TweetDeck(free)
Twitter is a daily occurrence for most people and TweetDeck is the fastest and easiest way for iPad owners to see who’s tweeting what, where and when.
2. Sketchbook Pro ($7.99)
This is must have app for graphic designers, with over 75 brush sizes, layer editor and symmetrical drawing tool it’s ideal for the iPad’s LED screen.
3. StumbleUpon (free)
The ultimate cure for boredom. StumbleUpon allows you to search through websites according to your specific interests. You can also share your favourite website with people that share your interests.
4. Marvel (free)
This app brings the acclaimed comics to life. The comic strips uses the iPad screen to it’s full advantage and introduces a whole new way to read and enjoy them. The graphics look outstanding and the text is easy to read.
5. The Elements ($13.99)
Although at first glance this looks like a rather expensive periodic table, it offers a 3D look through the elements. 3D images and data linked to pre-configured Wolfram Alpha searches it’s a far cry away from boring chemistry lessons.
Our own Director says ‘ I was impressed by the battery life on the iPad, it kept going throughout the working day and continued to when I got home and wanted to play on the apps, without any need for charging or plugging it in. The screen is undenienably shiny and although this looks professional and has that ‘x factor’ I would have preferred a matt option personally. Altogether though the iPad is a good device because of the apps which is what Apple relies on.’
Managed vs Unmanaged Hosting
As a Company you have seen the need to have your own website and are in the process of, or have already had this built, but do not know if you want to manage it yourself (unmanaged) or to use a hosting company (managed) to do this for you because you either (a) do not have the space big enough for the servers or the resources to look after the site yourself, or (b) you do have the resources but not the space to house the servers. We have therefore tried to show the difference between the two.
If you are considering using unmanaged hosting because you want to have complete control over your website, what have to take into account is that the website is actually self managed by you, the company. Unlike managed servers, your Company is responsible for the configuring and maintaining the server. This is a high maintenance environment and it will be your company’s responsibility to have the knowledge and technical skills in place to manage and keep the server hacker free by continually updating the software on it. While the unmanaged server is less expensive, it does require expert knowledge, the time and energy to maintain and configure the server as well having someone available 24/7 perhaps 365 days a year. To keep on top of changing data and applications could potentially be very costly meaning that you may have to work within a budget.
Managed hosting on the other hand allows a company to hand over this type of expertise to the host, making them responsible for the everyday running and upkeep of the website and that it enables you to have an additional level of support that simplifies your administration; it is more cost effective as it frees time up for you to be able to concentrate on other things to help you organisation to be more productive. It provides enhanced layers of security with features such as, critical system updates, disaster recovery and data backup. Companies that are solely reliant on their web presence will benefit greatly from a service that ensures that they are protected. As the host company usually provides 24/7/365 monitored environment, this often includes monitoring of the hardware, systems and the network itself, this assures that you receive a superb performance and availability as any problems will be addressed as soon as they are detected. Managed hosting comes into its own when there is downtime as it puts the technical burdens on the shoulders of trained IT experts; you also get guaranteed resources and features e.g. more disk space and bandwidth as well as more flexibility with features like programming languages, web applications and services. It is cost effective as the bulk of the administration is done by the hosting company and it eliminates the need for your company to have an experienced system administrator.
There are advantages and disadvantages of using either managed or unmanaged hosting, while the unmanaged server looks to some as the best option for them because it gives them complete control and maintenance of their website it would soon become apparent that this takes up a lot of space, time, money and effort including more down time, whereas the managed server, which fair enough, may cost more will free up your time by sorting out any problems, keeping your security up to date, less downtime giving you more uptime. When you are weighing the pros and cons of managed or unmanaged servers, remember that time is money. That the increased cost associated with managed servers is due to the increased service a managed server provides.
There will be re-boot caps (perhaps many times) and if you are on an unmanaged server you will be responsible for all of the administration, upkeep and software even if the server becomes compromised. The owners will help but you will probably be charged administration fees. You can either pay someone else to deal with the management of the server or you can save a little money and do it yourself, if you have the technical knowledge to do it properly and can afford to invest your time and resources into maintaining the website. If you are not familiar with how to sort out any problems and have little experience, this decision should be a quick one for you; Pick the managed server every time.
Managed Hosting and unmanaged hosting are two of many available, but managed hosting is geared towards businesses that require more personalised care for their web presence, at Decode Studios this is what we do and are very good at it, we are a small independent company who are dedicated to give you excellent customer satisfaction. We pride oursleves in giving you up to date advice on a range of our products and services, as well as being a Managed Hosting company who offer a 24/7 /365 day service. Your Company can improve the success of your website by using our managed hosting service meaning that you can then focus more of your resources on business, rather than IT.
So, logically it would be in your best interest to use a managed host site like Decode Studios where, as the service provider we would quote a competitive monthly fee, which would mean that there is no need for you to invest in expensive hardware; you would be responsible for just the content, because we, as the service provider would handle all the other details, we will mainain the site, provide all backup and will ensure continuous monitoring of sever performance as well as routine tasks like data backups. Your security is also managed and guaranteed by us. We offer 99.9% network uptime guaranteed.
So why not visit our website and start the process today at www.decodestudios.net