Blog
What Makes Apple’s Mobile Ad Platform Different
The iPhoneTM 4 has been out for over a month now. At that time, there was also a software update for older iPhones and iPodTM touches that added many features that were new on the iPhone 4. Part of the software update was the ability for app developers to display ads served up by Apple’sTM “iAd” platform. With the popularity of free applications that people download on a whim comes the desire for developers to monetize them to pay for their initial development costs and support further development.
The advertising model has now been brought into free apps, and it’s like a traditional Website that is mostly, if not entirely, supported by advertising. Apple’s iAd platform isn’t the first to offer developers the opportunity to include ads in their apps, but they do it a little differently.
The traditional electronic ad is either text, an image or a brief animation that, when clicked, will take you directly to the advertiser’s Website. iAd recognizes that most mobile devices either don’t support Flash or have a limited mobile edition of Flash so the common animated Flash ad isn’t possible. People often quote the statistic provided by Adobe that 96% of Web browsers have Flash installed, but that figure is actually representative of the percentage of Web browsers that are capable of running Flash and have it installed. That means it’s excluding millions of devices that have a Web browser that can’t run Flash, even if the device owner wanted to (this includes Apple’s mobile devices among many others).
Connect with HRB:
iAd instead focuses on the fact that 100% of all Web browsers have HTML support. Plus, all of the devices that iAd will be shown on also have CSS and JavaScript support for animation and interactivity. This method allows advertisers to show the full ad experience via CSS and JavaScript on all devices by default and shows the static version of the ad if they set JavaScript to be disabled. Using Flash will instead be shown as a blank block and will require the Flash plugin to show anything at all or requires the developer to also build the HTML version. This begs the question of, “Why not build the HTML version in the first place?” Ads haven’t been using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript until now due to the fact that CSS and JavaScript-based animations were introduced recently so Flash was the only option available to advertising / Website designers.
Click to view full size. Created by blog.monty.de
iAd’s extended ad view does include some new functionality that other ad services don’t offer. The ads expand within the current application when they’re tapped on instead of opening a Website in your Web browser. The ads are self-contained so that everything the advertiser wants to be shown can be included within the interactive ad, and can be closed at any time using a close button that is located in the same place for every ad. The expanded ad also has the ability to:
- Allow the user to submit a form (register for a giveaway / sign up to a newsletter)
- Download or purchase something from the App Store (purchase the full product / download a companion app)
- Save media to the device (wallpapers / videos)
- Access the camera (scan a barcode in a store / take a picture of yourself using the product)
- Integrate into other web services (social media / the product’s website)
- and more…
There’s the potential for a malicious advertiser to exploit some of these features or be a security risk but Apple is requiring each ad to be inspected and approved before being displayed. When iAd was announced, Apple brought up that finding a way to keep the advertising interactive while maintaining an emotional tone was very important to making this form of advertising engaging and effective. This is just another option that’s available to advertisers and developers alike and seems like a promising idea if used properly.
Kurt Zenisek
Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
Firefox Version 4 Beta Touts WebM Media Format and WebGL Support
Mozilla Firefox, the second most widely-used Web browser, has released version 4 for the public to beta test. The notable changes include a revamped user-interface and an easier to use preference and add-on manager. It also supports the newer HTML5 and CSS3 features that Website designers love. One standout HTML5 feature that Firefox has been touting is their unrivaled support for the WebM media format, which will allow Internet users to employ one (open-source) video and audio file format over the Internet. This will replace the need for users to install different programs (which require them to accept licensing agreements and/or fees) to play .wmv, .mov, .mp4 and .m4v files.
There’s also WebGL support included in the beta, but it isn’t enabled by default due to the fact that it’s still the development stage. WebGL provides Web designers access to utilize users’ graphics cards, which show an advanced graphic presentation (3d, intricate animations, displaying and managing a large number of images at once, etc). It is also a sister-project to OpenGL, one of the most widely used technologies for game graphics.
What’s more, a group of people at Google came together and actually ported Quake 2 to WebGL so that it can be run within your Web browser. This is a nice touch, considering the multi-player focus of the game. Users can now go to a Website (even if it’s their first time there), click play and start competing with other players over the Internet.
Connect with HRB:
Mozilla’s biggest concern is whether the public will appreciate its new user interface, which is comparable to the current interface of its competitor, Google Chrome. Realizing that some users may favor Firefox’s traditional interface, they’ve included preferences that allow people to change the layout back to the way it was before the update. This is a smart decision because it shows they’ve done their research ahead of time and value the needs of both their present and future users.
Mock-ups for the new user interface were shown back in September of last year. So how could something that seems so simple take over half a year to tweak? They’ve spent some serious time preparing answers to such questions, as the following video will show:
The Firefox 4 beta is publicly available for download at their Website. Remember that it’s a beta version when you try it out, because the new user interface is the most fully-realized for Windows users. For all you Mac and Linux users, you’ll have to wait a little longer until the team gets feedback from the Windows beta testers.
Kurt Zenisek
Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
Google Voice is Finally Open to the Public: 5 Simple Steps for Account Setup
Google first acquired a phone management company called GrandCentral back in July of 2007. In March of last year they changed the service name to “Google Voice” and it recently became available to the public.
Google Voice is a free phone service with the exception of international calls. It allows customers to register one number to ring them anywhere and get transcribed messages to their email inbox. Plus, the sign-up process is surprisingly simple considering the complexity of what’s going on behind the scenes.
Based on my own experience, I’ve outlined a simple 5-step guide to follow for account setup:
1) Visit google.com/voice
2) Sign in with your Google account log-in and password
3) Choose a single phone number to have your calls forwarded to (you can use your existing phone number if you prefer)
4) Enter your current phone number so Google can call that phone and send you a 2-digit verification code
5) Enter the 2-digit verification code you receive to verify it’s the correct number
This might seem like a lot of steps to take but it took me less than ten minutes to set up my Google Voice account for my home and mobile phone numbers. Google guides you through the process so you understand why they’re having you do any particular step. I spent an additional half hour or so going through the various features and settings and getting things working to my specifications.
What benefits does Google Voice actually offer?
Check out their answers in the brief video below. If you’re still curious, you can also view individual videos for the most popular Google Voice Features.
Google Voice can help someone that works directly with clients by giving out one phone number and assign various contacts to different groups. For example, you might have a group of contacts for your co-workers, clients, friends and/or family. Each group would be able to have a different set of phones to ring at various times, a different voicemail message and the option for a call to go directly to voicemail (which is a nice feature to have for a “blacklist” group).
Connect with HRB:
There was a moment of controversy when Google tried to submit their Google Voice app to Apple so that iPhone users could use the service. Apple ended up rejecting the application’s submission to its App Store. This led people to believe that AT&T had some part in making that decision, while others claimed that Apple was trying to impede on Google’s growing user base. Nobody is certain as to who made the final decision to approve the application or not, but Google knew that they needed to make this service available to iPhone users.
Google ended up writing the phone application so it could be accessed through a Web browser. iPhone users can now access their web service by going to google.com/voice and they are given access to all of the features that they’d expect from the native application that Apple rejected. There’s no way to block access to this due to the fact that it’s just a website and Apple can’t block Internet content under their existing terms of service (there would be an absolutely massive opposition if they were to start filtering users’ Internet access). What makes this so great is that Google programmed their Website design to make it look and act like a native iPhone application would.
My suggestion? Check this out. Even if you decide not to use this service, you’ll be ahead of the trend.
Kurt Zenisek
Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
Apple Showcases HTML5
Apple has added a new section to their Website that showcases various demos of things that can be implemented in new Website design projects using HTML5. The examples they’ve created are located here, but they can only be viewed in the latest version of Safari and Chrome (if you don’t have either of these, you can check out what this company has on display, complete with keyboard controls & more).
The limited browser compatibility is due to the fact that they programmed the demos to be run only in WebKit-powered Web browsers, and they programmed a pop-up to invite users to download Safari and view the demos using Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc. There are other methods for checking compatibility that would allow any browser that’s capable rather than the old method of simply choosing what browsers are let in.
The snafu concerning the “Safari-only” pop-up aside, the demos that they have on display are showing off some great implementations of what’s possible using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript in combination. They are displaying the use of video with custom controls (fast forward & rewind included) in addition to various real-time effects such as live resizing, image masking and 3D perspective. There’s also a nice demo for Web typography that shows off what’s capable now that websites can include custom fonts so that any text on a page looks & acts like a user would expect. There’s an assortment of photo demos that range from interactive panoramas, galleries, slideshow transitions, layering using dynamic content and post-processing effects with the ability to save the resulting image to your computer. Interactivity is being showcased by their checkers demo that includes the AI that’s required for the computer player, offline-accessible sticky notes and an offline-accessible calendar akin to a simplified iCal (Apple’s calendar application).
Connect with HRB:
Before the iPhone 4 announcement at WWDC, this showcase had a prime spot on Apple’s homepage that linked to apple.com/html5. It replaced the “Thoughts on Flash” open letter from Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. It wasn’t removed from the site and the open letter got bumped to the bottom of the HTML5 & Web standards page. But it’s nice to see Apple’s commitment to Web standards and that they will be fully supporting them in the future. It’s a little bit of a bummer to find out that the Website they made used arbitrary checks to determine if they should display a warning that offers a download for Safari, but the overall outcome of them working to improve the adoption of Web standards is much more important.
Kurt Zenisek
Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
Google Chrome 5 is Released. No longer in Beta.
In a time-span of around a year and a half, Google Chrome has become one of the best (if not the best) web browsers available. Google has been making improvements to Chrome very rapidly and it shows. Their primary focus when they first announced that they’re making a web browser was to make the browsing experience as fast as possible. Turns out that they did make it fast, and they’re still working hard so that it remains the fastest. Version 5 introduces a major speed increase to their JavaScript engine that will become more apparent in portable devices and advanced web applications.
HTML5
HTML5 support has also been improved. Some of the features that it now supports include geolocation, offline storage, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop. Geolocation works pretty much like it sounds, and provides the capability of attaining the user’s current location if it’s available (via GPS, WiFi triangulation, ISP, etc). That can be a little scary, so I should mention that users will always be prompted the first time a website wants to get their current location so that this information is never available without asking permission. Offline storage simply allows websites to save some information that’s specific to the individual user onto their local computer. This provides the opportunity of improving website load times, making user registrations not as compulsory, and allowing the user to access the when they actually aren’t connected to the Internet. Web Sockets allows websites to talk to the server and vise-versa in near real-time. Someone has put together a video demonstration of how much this can speed things up when multiple users are collaborating/communicating at the same time. File drag-and-drop has already been added to Gmail so that a user can now drag a file from their computer and simply drop it onto the message that they’re composing to attach it. These are all excellent features for web designers to take advantage of so that users can have the best experience possible online.
Sync
Google also updated their cloud syncing feature so that it can now sync a user’s browser preferences & themes in addition to improving bookmark syncing. This allows someone to have their web browser tied to a Google account, and any other computer with Chrome setup to use that Google account will always be the same. For example, when a user adds a bookmark to their home computer it will be pushed out to their laptop, work computer, and/or android phone without requiring them to do anything. Adding preferences & theme syncing is pretty minor overall, but it really rounds off their syncing service so that it includes nearly everything that someone might want (extensions aren’t supported yet).
Extension support was added to Chrome in January of this year, and the library of extensions has filled out pretty nicely as many of the top extensions for Firefox have been recreated for Chrome. Now that it’s no longer in “beta” means that there’s a fully “stable” release available for Windows, Macs, and Linux. If you’re still using Internet Explorer or have settled on using Firefox/Safari/Opera/etc. give Chrome a try. You might find yourself liking it quite a bit. It’s available for download at google.com/chrome.
*Update* Apple has just released a new version of their web browser, Safari. It now supports extensions, additional HTML5 capabilities, hardware acceleration on Windows, and various other user-interface enhancements. They are also claiming it is comparable to, if not faster than, the speed of Chrome. They also introduced a new feature for web browsers that they’re calling “Reader” where a user can isolate just the content they care about on a page so that they can read articles online without distractions (I highly-recommend trying it out, because Apple really knows how to make a rich user-experience). There’s other great improvements, but I’ll give you a link to download it and try it out rather than simply posting a list of the features. It’s available for download at apple.com/safari.
Henry Russell Bruce is a strategic marketing and Internet marketing firm that uses research, brand-building, advertising, media buying and planning, design, public relations, Web design and strategies to help clients grow market share, generate new business, create brand loyalty and measure marketing results to build and support its clients' brands. HRB, founded in 1973, has offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa. For more information, contact HRB.
Kurt Zenisek
Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
