Nick Floro's Blog

Thoughts, ideas, and knowledge sharing on technology, e-learning, design and running your own business.

Apple introduces iBook Author, the cost? FREE

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Apple introduces a new app iBooks Author which allows you to integrate and develop content right within the tool. Will play and report back with some examples shortly. Content is published to the iOS platform via the new iBooks app. You can download today via the App Store. You can use HTML and Javascript to expand capabilities further. McGraw-Hill: hard at work on Algebra 1, Biology Chemistry, Geometry, Physics, used by 3m students. All five available today. Read the event coverage by MacNN: http://www.macnn.com/live/#ixzz1jvT0JAa8


Watch the Apple video here to learn more:

They also announced a new app for iTunes U so you can have a course with content in one place. 

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Macworld | iWorld Registration Promos - Free Exhibit pass to first 100 users and $15 off an iFan Pass #MacworldiWorld

If you are planning on attending Macworld 2012 in 2 weeks, the first 100 users can get a free exhibit pass or save $15 off an iFan pass. 

Enter SOURCE CODE:  BNS89670

I will be presenting The Future of Learning at 10am on Friday 1/27 at 10am:

See you in San Francisco.

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Upcoming Conference: Software User Assistance March 11-14 Memphis TN- Discounts thru Jan 15

The Conference for Software User Assistance is quickly approaching. The event takes place March 11-14 in Memphis. The focus is on techniques for creating a better experience for people working with our software. Early registration discounts end this coming Saturday, Jan. 15.

I'll be there presenting on media compression and gaming. Hope to see you there.

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New to eLearning? Don't miss the eLearning Foundations Intensive 3/19-20 in Orlando, FL #LSCon

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I had the opportunity to both participate in a small part in the eLearning Foundations Intensive, part of eLearningGuilds Learning Solutions conference, last year and was blown away by the content and speakers. This is a great opportunity for anyone new to the field or wanting to master the fundamentals. The pace and content flow is great and you can learn a lot in the 2 days that you can immediately apply to what you are doing back in the office. 

When:
Monday and Tuesday, March 19th & 20th
Orlando, Florida

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Making Forms - Looking for a easy way to create forms without coding… look no further than Wufoo.com

I've been using Wufoo for a little over a year and love how easy it is to use and setup new forms that you can share with your team, clients or customers. Wufoo provides a simple interface to quickly drag and drop fields onto a page and allows you to focus on the information you need to gather rather than how you need to code or design the form.  If you need a little more power, flexibility and reporting than what Google Docs forms offer, this web app now owned by SurveyMonkey provides a great experience and power to grow. There API offers several ways to integrate into other components such as credit card transactions or the ability to attach files. We've used it for client projects, support forms, surveys and order forms. Forms can easily be setup without ay prior knowledge of coding and quickly launched without any special server or software since they are hosted within their servers.

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The web app provides templates as well as system for customizing designs and several field types. This is a example of a web based support form we use to collect data from users who are experiencing a issue or have a question and we can quickly provide support. You can easily drag elements up or down on the form as well as quickly define field types.

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After selecting a field, the left area changes from field types to specific settings for that field type. This allows you to require a field, customize the data type or provide other instructions.

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After your form is setup you can easily have the data emailed to the user, as well as to your team and login back in to Wufoo to review any entries as well.

Wufoo is free for up to 3 forms and 100 entries per month or available in several inexpensive plans.
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Learn more at: 

iOS: Zite: Great news app for keeping up on what interests you...

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Zite is a great iOS app for exploring and keeping up on the latest news in your favorite categories, similar to FlipBoard, it displays the latest stories in several views which you can easily navigate by moving left to right in the top area and then your stories will display. Selecting a story will display the article with options to share with others as well as vote which will improve the news items that are presented each time you use the app.

You can easily setup an account so you can share you profile and categories between multiple devices. Easy to use and great app to keep up with the latest information. 

Download:

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Interface Quirks - Why do we need to confirm a action after I clicked the original?

Trying to unsubscribe from a email, clicking in the unsubscribe button opens a browser window where you need to enter your email and click Yes, unsubscribe me even after you clicked the original button. Do they think we changed our mind in the 2 seconds it takes to open the window. I would prefer the option to resubscribe, rather than wasting my time or trying to deter the action.

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Using a SSD drive in a MacBook Pro: The speed will blow you away.

Wow, had the opportunity to test drive the SSD, solid-state drive, in the MacBook Pro as well as in a Air and it's amazing! I was skeptical that the speed would increase for launching a app or opening documents but the difference is 2-3x faster with typical applications from Office, Keynote, Filemaker, Photoshop, Captivate, Flash and After Effects. Running my setup from a 750gb hard drive, launching apps, exporting content, compressing videos all were timed to 50-70% faster using the 512mb SSD drive. Boot times, from a off state were also noticeably difference with the SSD booting almost twice as fast. I would highly recommend investing or planning a upgrade on your current laptop to decrease waiting and increase productivity.
Learn more about SSD's at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

Lego's Life of George interacts with the iOS platform - very cool Augmented Reality


Life of George includes both a building game mode with single and 2 player mode, as well as creation mode where you design and capture your own models. In the building game you receive challenges on your iPhone/iPod Touch that you build with real LEGO bricks. In the 2 player mode you can challenge a friend and compete on 5 different models to see who builds the fastest. There are various difficulty levels determined by the models and the time setting you choose (easy or hard).

Expecting one from Santa, will report after I, I mean the little one gets to play with it.

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