Journal

$599 Website Sale Ends 2/15/'13

2012-03-31T13:43:19Z

What do you get for $599?

State of the Art 4-page Website
2 Original Concepts
3 Rounds of Revisions (once you have selected one of the two concepts)
Social Media Integration
Full Integration with Your Chosen Web Host

Going Beyond

2012-01-30T22:58:14Z

Sometimes we need to try new things and go beyond what has worked for us in the past. Of course we are recommending calculated risks rather than blind leaps of faith. For instance, if Facebook and Google ads are no longer giving you the desired results or those approaches have never produced desired results...perhaps it would be a great idea to try Groupon, Living Social or Four Square.
First do your homework: ask around to see who has had any experience with any of these services. Do not stop there, go online and gather as much useful information as you can. See if a site like Lifehacker has a how-to guide. Once you know how everything works and what are the potential risks then start as small as you can. As your confidence grows and if you see desirable results take things to the next level or try a new strategy.

The Fine Print

2011-10-21T15:51:29Z

How to get an iPhone 4S for free:

1. Refer any person or company to us and you immediately qualify for a free iPhone 4S.
2. You will receive an Apple gift card for the full value (including taxes) of a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB iPhone 4S bought with a 2 year agreement with any of the carriers. Model paid for will depend on the project you refer to us. Delivery of the gift card will take place immediately after the contract with the referred party is signed.
3. We give the iPhone, you are responsible for all monthly charges and regular fees.

Exclusions:
* Special offers such as the $500 logo & business card are not eligible for the iPhone 4S promotion

$500 Logo & Business Card Design Promo

This is what we offer:
• Two design concepts and three rounds of revision at no extra cost.
• 1000 high quality printed business cards delivered within ten business days after design completion.

We would not be who we are without you.

2011-10-11T21:03:31Z

Proud to be part of the growing group of the crazy ones.

HP = Yawn + Fail

2011-08-31T18:02:19Z

It's still too early to know whats going to happen with WebOS, however, what we have heard does not give us any reassurance of its survival or success. This is sad because after iOS, WebOS is probably the best crafted mobile OS.
Unfortunately, Palm and HP seem to have paired a great OS with even greater potential to be a contender with hardware that both times left a lot to be desired.

All that WebOS could be...

We wish Amazon bought it and turn it into a winner. There you have it, that's what we really wish. This might never come to pass. However, this is what we think HP, if it were to keep WebOS under its roof could do:

Be the alternative OS

Capitalize on the fear Android's licensees must be feeling. Offer all interested OEMs an irresistible deal. Make the current version free for a year.Not just undercut Windows Phone 7 pricing, but offer the best of all worlds. Allow potential licensees the ability to sell services (default search, mail, etc) to the highest bidder. Allow certified and install-at-your-own-risk apps. Invest in the continuos development of the platform.

Beyond mobile

Turn WebOS into an all-in-one OS (phone, tablet and desktop) and other dreams...but who are we kidding? HP will never do be able to pull it off because it lacks vision and the drive to be the great company it once was.

How to Tackle Google

2011-08-24T14:12:30Z

Those who compete with Google are unlikely to succeed until they emulate what Google has done, not against money losing products, but rather take the fight to Google's main (or sole) profit source: search.

There are several examples to follow Firefox vs EI, Wikipedia vs all encyclopedias

First, let's see how Google operates. The Mountain View company has a core business: advertising. The only business that makes money therefore is ad-supported search. Google uses money from its cash cow to give away over forty different products. It is worth pointing out that the undisputed search leader functions like a utility/monopoly and as such has it has abysmal customer service and invests as little as it can on search due to its lack of competition.
If FaceBook got into the search business Google would put a lot more money in search R&D. Luckily for the Mountain View giant this is not the case.

While Apple, Microsoft and others fight Google on different fronts what we suggest is to take a page from Google's playbook and create an ad-free search engine modeled after Mozilla and Webkit. Yes, make search not just open, but also free of ads, free of the need of tracking users' every online move.

Surviving without ads or selling users to advertisers...

First, Apple could simply do what it did with Webkit, buy a promising search startup turn it into a nonprofit organization like Mozilla and provide it with enough funds to strive for five years. Then, users could make donations as they currently do for Wikipedia. In other words, Users could become members and pay an annual fee and not have to deal with ads and privacy issues.

This organization could fulfill the promise that Diaspora was supposed to in the social networking realm.

Apple could give it a huge boost by making it the default iOS/ OS X search engine. OEMs could participate in a profit sharing program which would be better than accepting a lump sum from Microsoft or Google. All the profit would be invested on improving search. The two goals would be: to be the best search engine on earth and to protect its users' privacy by not storing or tracking any information.

Apps is where it's at!

2011-08-22T18:44:10Z

Depending on what kind of business you are in, an app maybe more important than a website. People are in front of a computer for a few hours to perhaps eight hours a day while most people have their phones with them at all times. In essence, to many the phone is the computer and more since the new breed of phones takes personal computing to places where the PC never could.

Then there is the unimaginable success of Apple's App Store. Last year the Cupertino company paid out 2 billion dollars to developers. Just a fee years ago Google, Mozilla et al., were pushing for the browser to be the new OS. "Forget installing clients a browser is all you need." The iPhone and the App Store changed the tide and now the app is king. We are seeing a new gold rush similar to the dot com bubble of the '90s.
One thing is undeniable apps is where is at! This is why we have put together an all-star team to turn our clients's ideas into iOS apps. Our team will continue to serve the needs of our loyal customers. As always with Operefficiency you not only get great design and best in class implementation, but a team that will help you all the way from name to success.

Our Take Verbs & More

2011-05-20T16:13:29Z

We were about to buy Verbs for the whole team based on the buzz We've heard lately. But some negative reviews made us pause and dig deeper.

In terms of beauty Verbs is peerless in its category. However, it's missing push and only runs in the background for ten minutes. It's also missing MSN, Yahoo etc. According to the developers those things are coming, as are push and running in the background for a week. However, the way this upgrade would come about is very interesting or illogical depending on who we ask. Verbs Pro will be a subscription. Pricing is still unknown, but presumed to be less than $2.99/year. This is driving a few users crazy since nobody else is relying on a yearly subscription in order to offer a pro version or just a couple of features commonly found on free apps or those that cost $5 and up. In conclusion, you won't find a better looking IM app, you also might not find one as limited.

The more the title refers to is the fact that this app made us analyze the different business models developers are currently applying. Stay tuned for the complete rundown on our next entry.

Sony PSN Mess A Great Example Of How Not To Treat Your Customers.

2011-05-04T15:26:28Z

Monopolies tend to not be very food when it comes to customer service. This fact is perfectly understandable. It comes with the territory as they say. However, the last thing Sony has in the gaming arena is a monopoly. Gaming continues to be fiercely competitive and now the attacks are coming from of all companies,
Apple. These facts are what makes Sony's recent mess even more baffling. You might say, but why didn't Sony prevent this? The truth is no company is unhackable. We know Sony did not do a good job at protecting customers's data either. The worst part, is what Sony did after the PSN was hacked: put the burden of remedying the situation squarely on customers's shoulders. From Sony's email: .

"To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we
encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and
to monitor your credit reports."

In other words, although this is all Sony's fault, it is now customers's responsibility to fix it.

The right response should have been:

We have partnered with the best identity protection firms in the business to ensure that you do not have to worry about having identity theft related issues in the future.

In addition, the service will be free for the rest of the year. Or we are studying how to best compensate customers.

Sony ended their email as follows:

"Our teams are working around the
clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information."

Yet, according to several sources, an additional 25 million accounts were compromised just a couple of days later!

Instead of: 1) solving the root problem, 2) addressing the identity theft issues, 3) making it up to customers. Sony offered a month of free service, whenever they get around to restoring the PSN.

Group texting, not just to Party!

2011-04-04T15:57:22Z

It seems that from time to time a bunch of talented designers and programmers all get obsessed about the same app concept e.g. Twitter clients, news readers etc. This time the nascent white hot app is group messaging. To be exact these apps do a lot more than letting us send an SMS to two or more friends. Almost all let you share your location, send pictures, easily do a phone conference; in short keep a group on the same page.
Here at Operefficiency Labs we have been testing all apps so that you don't have to. Here we will focus on the two we feel we can recommend without reservations, which leaves us with Fast Society and GroupMe. If this were only about looks Fast Society would be hands down the winner. Besides being one of the most gorgeous apps we have ever seen FS has all the features you would expect from this app class. The emphasis is on temporary teams, however, you can create up to five teams with any duration you wish from mere hours to forever. The main shortcoming we found was the "one group at a time limitation." We hope to see this change in the near future. GroupMe is not as beautiful, however it is the most robust player in this category. There are no limits in terms of how many groups you can create, plus you don't have to be in one group at a time since each group you create gets its own unique phone number.

Not just for fun

We believe that both of these apps can be extremely useful tools for small businesses. Provided you have less than twenty-five workers or organize the staff in units of that number. The conference call feature is great for those times many team members are on the move. The location sharing features lets all team members know where others are. The ability to have a main group keeps everybody in the loop while short term groups could be used for projects or any ad hoc assignment that requires coordination. You could also add a client to a group and use it as a realtime means of offering customer service, coordinate meetings, conference calls; they can even know when you are on the way to their rescue.

Private group messaging seems to us as the natural progression from Twitter since DMs and other messaging options fall short of what Fast Society and GroupMe have to offer. It's exciting to see all the innovation that the heated competition has produced and promises to keep bringing.