This year we’re feeling extra festive and offering a special gift to call our customers.

Anyone who recommends us to a friend for hosting (we can manage the swap over) or for a new website receives a Free John Lewis Christmas Hamper!

The best part is our hosting & domain name bundles are the cheapest around, so chances are someone you know is already over paying for their annual web hosting and domain name fees anyway. We are even knocking 10% off to the customer you recommended.

With hosting & domain name package starting from £99 per anum how better to spread Christmas cheer by saving a friends company some money then toasting with a glass of wine from your shiny new John Lewis Hamper.

Terms & Conditions :

1) You must inform us of any recommendations before we receive contact from the new client. We cannot accept recommendations we are informed of after the client has contacted us.
2) The recommended person or company must take on a hosting package with us, this can either be hosting their current site or as part of a new website deal.
3) Each recommendation taking on hosting will receive a John Lewis Seasons greetings hamper (as pictured)
4) You will receive a hamper for every single recommendation that takes on hosting, this is not limited to 1 per person.

Since the first f8 keynote in 2007 facebooks annual conference has not only grown in numbers but media attention now having a huge influence on the world.

At last years event facebook announced the open social graph allowing individual web pages, products and more to have their own like button anywhere on the web.

This year Mark Zuckerburg the worlds youngest billionaire took the stage again in trainers and tshirt announcing the next step. Facebook have extending their open graph now even further allowing you to share specific actions that can be set in your own apps created by developers.

For example cooking, reading or what is set to be the biggest impact ‘listening’ to music. The Spotify app will allow you to see what friends are listening too there and then with Spotify’s CEO taking the F8 stage to announce this. On another hand the Netflix app will allow you to see what movies friends are watching without them every having to click share (this is if they set the app to do this of course, it’s always your own choice).

But what does this mean for business and the future of social media?

At inLIFE developing these types apps for your business will be interesting and unrestricted as we can choose any activity to respond to your product i.e wearing, watching, eating. This is just the start of breaking the boundaries between everyday life and digital marketing.

On top of this facebook also announced their new Timleine feature. This is an overall ‘biography’ like summary of your life past and present. A great way to express your entire life on a single page. Apps can be selected to add to your timeline for example the ‘travel app’ will show a mapping of your facebook posts by geo location from where you posted them in the world.

If you haven’t embraced facebook yet for your business, with 1 in 13 people in the world having a facebook account.. now is the time.

Here at inLIFE we not only like to hang ten on the fast moving board of web technology.. but if it doesn’t exist yet we set about creating it.

With this in mind our aim is to run a completely paperless business, not just because were super techno geeks but more importantly making sure we meet our planet friendly vision in running a green environmentally friendly company.

So here’s how we do it.

Customer Contacts : Our entire customer contact database is stored on the cloud using Google Apps for business. This has improved business efficiency allowing us access from anywhere on any computer securely and also means we don’t need endless filing cabinets of paper records. Another great benefit of this is it is auto synced from anywhere so we can access customer contact details direct from our iPhone, iPad or desktop.. if we change a number or email address assigned to that customer then changes are instantly made across all platforms so we are up to date in real time. This is also regularly backed up should we loose our digital copy.

Communication : All customer communications are done via phone, email or skype. We have so far never had to send a letter and the only time we can perceive ever having to do this is if regarding anything of legal matters through a solicitor (due to the legal system still being rather backwards and mundane)

Documents : Our documents and files are of utmost importance to us, not only our personal files but all client documents and designs created have to be stored in a 100% secure yet accessible way. Again storing files and print outs in filing cabinets just seems a bit… stone-age. All inLIFE documents are stored on a shared server that developers and designers have access to with different access login details for each. We can again access this via mobile phone, ipad or desktop from anywhere in the world securely. We use Google Docs (as part of Business Apps) to write all word documents, excell sheets and slideshows, we can then give access rights to other users (even externally) in order for them to view, edit or amend these themselves.

Backups : We believe the current industry standard method of keeping backups and tapes is still a little non environmentally friendly also not completely fool proof. So all files are backedup direct to a cloud based backup service known as Carbonite.

Carbonite is always running and always backing up every file every second in real time. We can again access these backed up files from any platform anywhere, further fuelling our statement.. the world is our office.

Bank & Payments : We have a green bank account with HSBC doing all our banking online. Our accountant also has full access to our online business banking system meaning no need for printed statements. This also allows us and our accountant to work quicker and efficiently without the need for tirelessly passing paper statements backwards and forwards. All our payments are either made via BACS or paypal, we have no cheques. If paying in person we can even do this via mobile phone using the Paypal app to bump phones and instantly send payment to the other person.

Invoicing & Reports : For this we use a very popular and secure online system known asFreshbooks. Invoices can be created on the spot from iPhone, iPad or desktop they are auto styled and emailed out allowing the invoice to be paid online there and then via credit card or paypal. Invoices are tracked along with expenses and all reports are generated for balance sheets, corporation tax and more. Automated invoices are set to go out once a year for hosting accounts and all stored again on the cloud allowing us 100% secure access from anywhere in the world. This system also allows us to input all expenses from the iPhone app making sure we never forget to add on that fuel bill.

The Desk : Pens are banned in our office. If notes need to be taken they are done so on iPad or iPhone, all notes are then auto synced to the cloud again meaning we can view them from anywhere in the world from any platform. When sketching out a rough sample of how something should look as designers often do we use the Brushes iPad app (all employees have iPads). Our calendar and appointments are also all ran online using Google apps which again syncs across all phones and platforms meaning everyone knows where everyone else is at any one time. We have an iPad sitting on the desk showing the calendar and this also has built in alerts and reminders to email us and pop up on mobile to help us never miss an important meeting.

Tasks : Individual employee tasks are all set using Google Tasks (as part of Google business apps) which allows us to review, add and amend tasks via desktop or even on the go via the iPhone App GTasks Pro. All tasks can be set deadline and are then ticked off when completed.

On the move : When travelling all tickets are purchased either online or via iPhone apps. When going to meetings and taking notes this is also done on iPad which instantly syncs with every other platform meaning designers can start reading notes on the company we are developing for before we have even left the meeting.

Contracts : Contracts are digitally signed through signatures and online confirmation. Plus an email trail of all contracts and discussions are kept for written validation. Again meaning we need nothing ‘signing’ yet these are still legally binding.

In summary that’s how we run the majority of our business without having touch a single piece of paper, and also more efficiently than any other business model out there allowing us to securley access everything.. from everywhere.

It’s worth mentioning that when discussing this with clients a lot of people seem to get quite defensive over paper, making statements like they could not possibly run their business without it, and everyone ‘expects’ a paper copy or contract. Our response to this is that just because its the way something has always been done, doesn’t mean its right. We also believe we are ahead of the game in this field and within 30 years no company will be issuing paper copies of anything.

This year the average time of mobile app usage per person per day was 81 minutes, compared to 74 minutes on the Web.

On top of this in 2011 for the first time, smartphone and tablet shipments exceed those of desktop and notebook shipments. Although we don’t have to tell you that, chances are you are already a smartphone owner and have witnessed the smartphone zombies walking the streets and sitting around the dinner table starring at their hands.

So there is no doubt the forseable future of the web is mobile based.

Given this fact more and more business want to get into apps, however to be accepted on the ‘app store’ your app has to have a use, a valid audience and a purpose. i.e you cannot just submit your website or video converted into ‘app’ format as this will be declined, you can however submit an app that may be of use to your customers i.e a ‘decibel sound level app’ for speaker manufacturers – but bear in mid this will have to be maintained in order to stay useful. On top of this the cheapest web app prices start from around £4000, although can soon be made back through app sales or advertising, given your app is worthy of buying of course.

So how can you break this market in an affordable way without having to think of a useful app, spend a few grand and then hope it gets accepted into the app store? This is where web apps come in.

Web apps run as an app but over the Internet rather than stored in your phones memory, when viewing a website from your mobile the display instantly becomes a functional app.

Dedicated web aps can be created however in a more popular move you can seamlessly turn your current website into a mobile app when viewing from mobile phone. This instantly shows your current website in an app format yet keeps the same look when viewing from desktop.

To see a working example of this try viewing www.inLiFEdesign.com on your smart phone. You will instantly notice a complete change from the regular desktop version. The site shows a condensed app sized website with mobile drop down menu, mobile sized pages and functionality. At the bottom you will also see a flip switch allowing you to switch back to desktop version too. You can even save the site as a desktop icon on your iPhone which displays an inLIFE app icon to return easily.

Internal web apps can even be created for managing business, submitting reports, job sheets and more. At inLIFE have noticed a huge increase in requests for this type of web app development in the past few months alone!

And now the sales pitch.. if you are not interested in setting up a web app stop reading here.

Our prices in web app development start at £300. This price is given that we (or another pro web agency) have built your site, as if the site is not coded to a quality standard we may have to re write a lot in order for it to be compatible.

For bespoke internal web apps for business systems management quotes vary depending on the exact project and needs.

Contact us today for more information.

Statistics source : TheTechJournal

Are you sick of dodging the same pot-hole every day? Or walking past the same unsightly graffiti for months… well now you can make the most of paying your council tax with their new mobile App for reporting these incidents, and more!

The council have launched the ‘my council services’ application that allows you report any incidents from graffiti & fly tipping to pot-holes and antisocial behaviour direct to your local council services. It even allows you to upload a photo direct from your phone and automatically tags the location on a map with geo targeting.

Given the state of UK council and government websites we did not expect much from the app.. but were surprised! We gave the App a full 5 stars for usability and it’s step process makes it quick and easy to use so you can report an incident in seconds.

So we have put it to the real test by reporting some local fly tipping, now we await to see if the councils response is as good as their application!

If you want to give it a try you need an apple iPhone or android smart phone, just search for ‘my council services uk’ in the app store!

Don’t forget at inLIFE we can turn your website into a web friendly mobile app or even develop your own apps to be submitted to the apple or android app store! Contact us for details

This month the search engine giant Google have announced the launch of their very own social network set to take on facebook, known as Google+. It is only available by invitation at the moment however at inLIFE we have had chance to test it out in beta alongside a number of other Internet gurus including Mark Zuckerburg (owner and founder of facebook). Mark also just happens to be one of the most popular users and has, in a rare move, gone on record in saying ‘This is evidence that the future of the Internet is a social one’

So the big question is will it take on facebooks current social choke hold? Our guess is it will never surpass facebook however we do predict within the next 18 months it will grow to a more than worthy adversary. The reason for it’s success we believe will be down to one thing… the fact it is pre built into google search. Google being THE go-to search engine can provide small ‘+1′ buttons next to it’s listing results, clicking on this will allow you to share it instantly in your google plus account within your ‘cirlces’ (as google calls it) of friends, family or own custom ‘circles’ of friends.

This is all very well as another way social networking tool to see your nephews drunken antics from last weekend, but what does it mean to your business? The big advantage over facebook for business is again lies behind Googles power in search, they have used this fact to their advantage thus having +1 next search listings will allow your users to instantly share your website seamlessly with friends. On top of this with a bit of extra code users can even share individual items such as products within your website. It makes sharing content as natural as face books recent social graph of ‘likes’ that have popped up around the internet. Once more this is another great way for your consumers to do your marketing for you… the only work you have to do is make a product or service good enough that users want to share it!

So keep an eye on google plus over the next few months and look out for the +1 buttons next to listings. If you want to ensure your website is ready for Google +, set up a Google plus account or get additional buttons within your site contact is today for more advice.